Alexis
by XxxMidNighT
Summary: r&r even if its ur first time seeing this. reviews are v.much appreciated
1. prologue

_**Prologue**_

She walked along the gravel path; shoulders hunched, eyes looking straight at the ground; as inconspicuous as usual.

'_Can I do this? Will it really work?' _The thoughts ran and reran through her mind. Slowly she became more agitated, causing her to fiddle with the stray hairs falling in front of her trench coat. A set of steps came into her line of vision. Looking up at the great oak doors she let out a sigh_, 'well…'_ she told herself, _'this is your last opportunity to turn back, as soon as you walk up those steps your gonna be someone new, a totally different person.'_ Her fingers entwined themselves in a strand of her incredibly long and surprisingly thick hair. Taking a deep breath she walked up the steps. Upon reaching the front door she pressed the bell. Straight away, she heard hard shoes rapping on stone floors. At about eyelevel, she watched as the person behind the door pulled out one of the panels in the door. Two cold grey eyes looked out at her, "Who are you? What do you want?" came the acidic hiss.

"Alexis, I have an appointment," she said as she pulled out a letter from deep inside her black trench coat.

"Take that atrocious thing off of your face, I can barely hear you!"

"I said! …My name is Alexis and I have an appointment," she said her voice louder and deeper, yet still somewhat muffled. She shoved the letter up to the hole in the door and waited.

"Very well, you may come in." The door opened revealing a dark corridor, scarcely lit. Alexis breathed in and let out a deep sigh, "well," she muttered to herself, "here goes nothing," she stepped inside.

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	2. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

Kenny rushed into the kitchen. The rest of the bladebreakers were at the table, Tyson and Daichi were wolfing down their pancakes and maple syrup like there was no tomorrow, Max was eating as much sugared puffs as possible, however, Kai and Ray were at least eating their breakfasts in a civilized manner.

"Guys, email from Mr. Dickenson!" yelled Kenny, face flushed. He set his laptop on the table in front of Kai and waited for him to read. Kai's gaze flickered from his plate to the laptop, "Hn."

"Kenny, maybe Kai doesn't want to read the email while he's eating. Read it out for us…please," Ray said, always being the peacemaker. Kenny smiled at him and read out the email:

"To the bladebreakers,

I hope that you are aware that there will be a tournament this summer. As there are many teams entering from all over the world, we have found it necessary to have a qualifiers tournament.

It will be held in Tokyo from the 1st of March. We hope that the team will be able to make arrangements to be there, as it has been confirmed with the governing body that any team, which does not turn up at the qualifiers and pass as one of the 50, will not be allowed to participate in the summer tournament itself.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Dickenson

Chairman of the BBA (Beyblade Battle Association)"

"Wow! There's a qualifier before the actual tournament? There must be hundreds of teams applying?" said Tyson, his mouth full of food.

"Yeah, and that means we're going to have to start proper training at an earlier date than we usually do," Kenny replied. Pulling out a calendar with shadings and numberings all over it he said, "according to my calculations, we have to start from the 10th…but to be on the safe side, Kai should get you up and running from now." He looked pointedly at Kai, expecting a reply.

"I should…but I won't," he got up and left the table. Turning he said, "We'll only start once you've finished your research on all the teams. Have you finished it?" taking his turn to look expectantly at Kenny.

"Yes…and no."

"How's that supposed to work?" objected Daichi, his plate wiped clean and his eyes settled on Kai's unfinished plate.

"I finished yesterday…but you see I went and checked the 'new members of teams' as I usually do every morning," he said blushing as everyone gave him surprised looks.

"And…"

"Well, there's a new addition to a team. Someone no one has ever heard of."

"Which team goes and gets a new person on their team so close to the tournament?" yelled Tyson slightly distressed.

"You'd be surprised. Just because it's December, doesn't mean that a team can't adjust to a new member…seeing as the tournament is in July," explained Ray to Tyson.

"Well…which team is it?" said Max speaking for the fist time, "and who is it?"

"We know the team well…"

"Oh hurry up Kenny and get to the point!" yelled Daichi emphasizing every word.

"Ok, ok, chill. It's the blitzkrieg boys."

"What?" Kai said, opening his eyes from his position by the door (you know exactly what I mean by his 'position', the one where he's leaning against the wall with his eyes shut…you should know it. Anyhow let's continue). Kai looked sharper, but not showing any feelings.

"Like I said, the blitzkrieg boys have made an addition. He's Russian. Apparently he's an AWESOME beyblader. It says," he bent over his laptop opening up the page with a few clicks, "… 'He is only known in the back streets of Moscow.' He's 16. Oh and Ray…Guess what!"

"What?"

"He's a neko-jin. Like you!" Kenny seemed to be really excited, a grin plastered to his face.

Ray, however, looked puzzled "I thought the only neko-jins were from China. How can there be one from Russia?"

"Well…" Max pondered, "Maybe there are neko-jins all over the world, but they just don't show themselves."

"Problem is," continued Kenny, "Seeing as he's not so well known, I haven't got any information on him. I don't even know what type of bitbeast he has. Maybe you could find out for us, Kai."

"…"

"Will you?" Ray asked, turning towards him.

"Will he do what?" asked Daichi, his eyes still resting on the plate of food.

"Will he find out about this new player or not," was Tyson's reply. He was resting in his seat with his eyes closed and cap pulled down. "So Kai, will you?"

Kai looked at each of them in turn then asked, "What's his name?"

"Oh…" Kenny looked at the screen and then back at Kai, "his name is Alexis."

-: -: -: -: -: -


	3. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

Boris Balkov sat behind his desk, staring at a file open in front of him. _'How can that boy be so illusive? He has everything I want and need…I can see that from the forms he's filled in. Yet, the forms are so empty.'_ He scanned the sheets looking for clues. Only the first name was filled in, not the surname. He had the age, 16, but not the date of birth, the country of origin, Russia, but not the address. He knew the boy only by what information he had been given. Yet, he couldn't and would not be able to find out any background information on him even if he tried. The only place he would be able to get it from would be from the boy himself, and that was very unlikely. Boris thought back to their meeting. He had hardly seen his face; that _thing_ had covered what his hair hadn't covered. The boy's hair had reached his knees and flew all over the place, that hair that had caused so much distraction for Boris. The boy had spoken in a low voice, which was made worse by that bandana across his face making him sound distant and muffled. And those eyes, Boris had had only one opportunity to see those golden globes. He frowned at the memory.

**Flashback**

"Beware of the guard dogs at the door, they don't like cats," Boris grinned at his own joke. The boy, who had been leaving, stopped with his hand on the door. He turned and looked Boris straight in the eye; his hair did not hide his eyes for once.

"Was that an attempt at a joke?" The ice-cold eyes fixed their golden gaze on Boris.

"Of course it was…don't you get it?"

"If everyone here is going to throw insults at me…the fact that I'm a neko-jin…I might have to reconsider joining the team." Boris's smile froze. He wanted this boy on his team. He wouldn't let him go. He had been at the back street tournament's final. He'd seen the boy win. He liked…no loved…his technique. "It was a joke. Don't worry I'll try to refrain from making comments…and I'll warn the boys. I'll see you tomorrow at 12:00 sharp."

"Sure."

The boy left.

**End Flashback**

Even at the memory, Boris seemed hesitant. There was something different about that boy. Boris wasn't scared, just wary of what the boy could do. Looking back at the form, he saw that the boy could do a lot.

The clock on his desk beeped, his gaze fell upon it. 12:00 am. There was a knock at the door

"Come in."

The door opened and Alexis walked in.

-: -: -: -: -: -

_**Ok…everyone I want to get this straight. Alexis is a girl. She pretends to be a boy. Everyone thinks she is a boy. And Alexis isn't just a girl's name. In fact, the Russian Alexis is quiet masculine. I chose this name, as it's a unisex name so no one will get suspicious of a guy with a girl's name. See, I'm clever… at least I think I am.**_

-: -: -: -: -: -


	4. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

Alexis sat on a chair. Boris was talking legal talk…AGAIN! And like yesterday, she will refuse to sign the contract. She will refuse to be a slave to someone…AGAIN! She will refuse to give up her life for this man. She just wanted to beyblade. No matter what, she would do anything in her reach to beyblade and be at the top. She'd try AGAIN, but this time not in the back streets of Moscow, but the top of the world. She'd do it, no matter what it took, even if it meant pretending to be a guy.

"So Alexis, do you have any questions?"

"Do I have to sign?"

"Look at it this way: you sign, you're in, you don't then you're out."

"I don't like commitment."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Want to know the reason why I was on my own when you saw me at the tournament?"

Boris sat up straighter, "Yes."

"It's 'coz I wasn't on a team. I lived and trained with a team, but I wasn't part of it, because I didn't want to tie myself down. I didn't want to commit."

"I wonder what kind of relationships you have…" Boris's eyes gleamed, "Which team?" He'd finally be able to get some information on him, finally.

"I'm not in contact with them anymore. We had an argument. I left. Anyway, they never had a name in the beginning."

Inside Boris he raged and fumed, "Where did they live?"

"Sorry, we all moved out of the house. That was part of the reason we had an argument. And even if I did know…I wouldn't tell you." Alexis's eyes pierced into Boris's.

"Why!" his eyes gleamed maliciously.

"We made a deal. We wouldn't reveal our backgrounds to ANYONE, unless we got the permission from each other."

"And seeing as you're not talking to them…there's no chance you'll get the permission?"

She nodded.

"Fine," he spat. His eyes scanned the room and rested on the clock on his desk, it read 12:59. "Well, the team should be here about…now." The clock beeped, turning 13:00. There was a knock at the door. "Come in."

The blitzkrieg boys walked in. Alexis didn't turn around; she was busy fiddling with a pen she'd taken off of Boris's desk without him noticing.

"Boys, get a chair and sit there," instructed Boris, pointing at the space on the right of Alexis. "Alexis, turn your chair a bit. Yes, like that. Good boy." Alexis glared at him. Bryan sniggered. "What's so funny Bryan?" queried Boris, his voice rising dangerously.

"Nothing sir…"

"Then sit down and keep your mouth shut. Team, meet your new member." The boys all turned to Alexis looking her up and down. Although she was still engrossed in the pen and was now using her penknife to take off the fake jewel that was stuck to the pen lid, then they turned back to Boris.

"When you said member, did you mean he would beyblade with us?"

"Yes he did," said Alexis, "is there a problem with that?"

"Em…yes," continued Bryan, "we don't want a neko-jin on our team. Do we?" The other boys just muttered under their breath once they had seen Alexis's reaction.

Alexis stood up, flicked her hair out of her eyes, turned to Bryan and said, "So… me being a neko-jin worries you does it? What…you scared?" she taunted.

"No!" yelled Bryan, drawing himself up to his full height, "I'm not scared of a kitten-boy like you!"

"I blame you!" yelled Alexis turning to Boris, who had been sitting back watching the two teens.

"And why," he drawled, "Would you do that?"

"I thought you would warn them."

"Oh yes, I forgot. Well boys as I promised him… no insults, name calling, prejudice, etc. etc. From now on, Alexis will be your teammate, whether you like him or not. My word is final."

Bryan glowered, muttered under his breath in Russian and then slumped into his seat.

"Now," continued Boris, "here is a letter, read it." Handing out the copies, he added, "We will start training the day after tomorrow. You will be moving to Skreknell tonight." The boys groaned. Alexis, on the other hand, looked up, "what's that?"

Ivan looked at her, "It's a house with only two bedrooms, one's a bit bigger than the other…so 3 in the big one and 2 in the smaller one. Its kitchen is _tiny _and the heating sucks…missed anything?" he said turning to the others.

Bryan looked up, "there's barely any food; 'coz the fridge is so small."

Boris scowled, "Enough complaints! The heating has been fixed, there is a new fridge, the kitchen has been extended and you're all going whether you like it or not. My word is final."

'_He says that too much,'_ thought Alexis.

Tala looked up and spoke for the first time, "they have qualifiers? ...There must be loads of teams applying! No wonder we're starting our training early." The boys all grimaced.

"Yes, any questions?"

"When do we leave for…Skergnell?" asked Alexis.

"You will be leaving for SKREKNELL tonight at 8 pm. Do you need to get anything?"

"Yes. Clothes"

"All of you get up. Go buy some new changes of clothes…be back by 5 pm on the dot. Now go." They all got up, "Wait Alexis…come back here." They all stopped and Alexis turned back and walked to the desk, "sign."

"No."

"I SAID SIGN!"

"And I said no. I'll stay with the team till after the tournament. And if I like it…" she glared pointedly at Bryan, "and only if I like it I will sign."

Boris glared at her, drawing himself up to his full height, towering over her he said, "You are a very stubborn and rude boy…fine…but that doesn't mean you can muck around. And if I fire you, there's no coming back."

"Deal," Alexis said as she stuck out her gloved hand. Boris shook it. The team turned and left.

Boris fumed, "that boy is beginning to _annoy_ me!"

-----

The five teens walked out the front door and into the snow, Alexis at the back.

"So…exactly why is that thing on your face?" asked Spencer. He looked tough, yet his question wasn't an insult, just a query. Alexis smiled behind the bandana. "I like it. It's my…" she searched for the correct word.

"Trademark?" offered Ivan.

"Yeah, my trademark," she finished.

"Some trademark," scoffed Bryan. Alexis kept silent, only sending him the harshest glares ever.

"So what is it you want to get?" asked Tala.

"I need everything."

"By everything you mean underwear, jeans, tops, pyjamas and bandanas?"

"Yeah, and bandanas," she smiled at him. Then, remembering he couldn't see her smile she let it spread across her face.

**Tala's P.O.V**

'_He can smile? So he must be able to laugh…His eyes are nice. Look they're shining at me! I did not just say that. What's happening to me? I think a guy's eyes are nice? ...I need help.'_

"We should go to the shopping centre (face it I'm not American), you can get anything from there."

Alexis looked up, "centre, as in mall?"

"What, you scared?" Bryan jumped in.

'_Oh, that was perfect Bryan; we can all tell you don't like him.'_

"No."

"Oh! So you're not scared of the fan girls? You do know that Boris put a small caption about you joining us on the 'new beyblader' list already…don't you? Even though there's no picture or 'physical description' they're going to guess it's you. They may be dumb, but they're not _that_ stupid."

'_Bryan! You're scaring him. Ah, whom am I kidding? Nothing can scare Alexis…he reminds me of Kai. They'd get along great.'_

"So Alexis, you think you'll be up to training? It's really hard."

"Hn… I guess."

'_Yep, they even have the same vocabulary.'_

"You don't mind sharing a room?"

'_He shakes his head…what more do you expect?'_

"So where are you from?" I ask him.

"Here."

'_Oh that's going to help so much.'_

"Doesn't all that hair bother you?"

'_Great question Bryan'_

"No."

"So you actually like it? I mean, how long does it take you to wash it? Your arms must ache afterwards."

"Bryan, I like my hair. Leave me."

'_I like it too. Why does Bryan have to be so mean?'_

**Normal P.O.V**

The teens reached the shopping centre and walked in. They moved quickly from one department store to the other. The 4 boys were slinking around as they chose their clothes, unlike Alexis who walked around with ease.

"Alexis. Can you go to the counter and pay?" asked Tala as he watched the girl behind it, "she won't recognize you."

"Sure, whatever," Alexis walked over to the counter and paid for all the clothes. Coming back she handed each person his bags.

"Oh Shit! Look at the time!" yelled Ivan, "it's nearly 4:30. We've got to get moving, now!"

They all rushed out of the shopping centre and piled into a taxi. It drove them all the way, up the gravel path, stopping at the front door. They all jumped out of the car, dragging their numerous bags along with them. Inside, they dropped their bags and dusted the snow off of themselves. Suddenly, making everyone jump, the grandfather clock at the end of the hall rang out 5 times. Tala, Spencer, Bryan and Ivan grinned at each other. Just in time. Boris came out of the room on the right and leant against the clock.

"Good timing. You're lucky you weren't late. I would have punished you if you had been a minute past five." The boys looked at each other warily.

"**_What are you doing?"_**

The boys all blanched and turned as one to see Alexis fingering a vase in an alcove.

"Don't touch…" warned Tala.

SMASH!

Too late

"Alexis!" they all cried in unison.

"What? I only touched it. I swear all I did was this and it went _smash_," she exclaimed with gestures.

"Yeah, we know, but it was already broken. You shouldn't have touched it. It was propped up; a single tremor would have made it break."

"Oh I see."

"**_Who broke it!"_** yelled Boris, **_"No one told me about this!"_**

The 4 boys looked at each other. They were in for it now.

-: -: -: -: -: -


	5. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

Alexis stood over Spencer, the first aid kit beside her, and a bottle of disinfectant in on hand and a wad of cotton in the other. She frowned, how could Boris be so horrible? How could he have done this to Spencer? Quickly and expertly she pressed the plasters (band aids, whatever you want to call them) to the cuts on Spencer's face and arms. It had been a vicious one-sided fight. The boys had all stood back and let it happen…but not Alexis. Although she was new, Spencer was her teammate…she had to protect him no matter what. She would treat him and the others like her brothers. No matter how annoying. She remembered the look Bryan had given Boris, for the first time Alexis had agreed with him.

**Flashback**

"You fool, that was a precious vase! Do you know how much it was worth? It cost at least 3.5 million dollars!" Boris raged at Spencer. Quick as a whip, Boris backhanded Spencer across the face, his many rings tearing at the skin on his cheek. Spencer only blinked; what could he do?

Alexis stared at the rest of the team, Ivan had shrunk into the shadow of the grandfather clock, and Tala had his eyes closed and a pained expression on his face. But the person that shocked Alexis the most was Bryan, he stood there with his fists bunched, face steadily getting redder and his mouth clenched shut. His violet hair stood on end as he suppressed his rage.

Alexis glared at Boris, "leave him alone. If you act like this every time someone does something wrong around here, I'm not surprised they didn't tell you about the vase breaking."

"How dare you talk to me like that? No dinner for any of you!"

The boys groaned, behind her bandana Alexis grinned.

**End Flashback**

"Ow! Ow! You're hurting me Alexis!" yelled Spencer in his deep voice.

"Chill out and calm down a bit. Oh My God! Look what you got me into Spencer; I've got your blood all over my clothes and hands…great. I'm going to have to have a shower. Later."

Spencer grinned sheepishly, "Serves you right for pressing too hard."

Alexis scowled. Bryan walked into the room, a pile of woolly jumpers in all sorts of colours in his arms, "Mrs. Karol Misha attacked me again. Look at her idea of fashionable now…woolly jumpers!" he sighed. "Here," he said as he threw the jumpers aimlessly. As quick as she could, and without even realizing her reaction, Alexis spun around and caught two of them. As soon as she touched the warm woolly jumper, she let out the loudest purr any of the other boys had ever heard in their life. Ivan, who had been sitting on a stool staring out the window at the snow outside, jumped and turned around. Tala, who had been messing around with his blade, also looked up. Bryan, on the other hand, had a grin spread across his face. "HAH! Kitty boy purrrrrrrrs!" he said as his laugh rang out through the room.

Alexis shot him a look of pure loathing, "it's not my fault. It's all the wool."

Tala smiled, "It is ok we all have weird things that we do."

Spencer moaned. "My head hurts." Alexis turned back to her task and bandaged his head up.

----

At 8:00 pm the teens piled into the back of a large land Rover. Boris had kept to his word, not allowing a single member of the team to eat a mouthful. After an hour, Alexis, now hungrier than ever, pulled out 5 small packets of food from her trench coat. The boys had all closed their eyes, not asleep but just lying or sitting in that position. As each one of them felt something small and heavy fall into their laps their eyes cracked open a bit.

"FOOD!" they all yelled. Alexis sat back as they opened their packets and stuffed their faces. No one, but Tala, had realized where it had come from. Sitting beside her, he made a space between them and emptied out his pack onto the car seat.

"Where did you get this from?" he queried, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, while we were shopping I bought these for a midnight snack…but it turned out I needed it much earlier than expected," she replied quietly.

"Thanks."

By the time they had reached Skreknell, it was roughly 12:00. They all groaned and moaned as they trudged up to the front door. The team wondered aimlessly into the bedrooms, Alexis preferring the smaller one as it would mean sharing with less people. However, as she had rushed into the bedroom, she did not know who exactly was going to be her roommate. Mumbling and swearing to herself in Russian and an assortment of other languages, she managed to dump her clothes unceremoniously into a set of drawers. She groaned as she took off her trench coat and her calf length Doc Martins. Flopping onto one of the beds Alexis, as tired as ever, set an alarm for 5:30. Taking out a pair of loose, knee-length shorts and an oversized jumper, she stepped into the bathroom to change. She stared at herself in the full-length mirror at the end of the room, not noticing someone entering the room.

"Do I have to share this room with kitten boy?"

Alexis groaned inwardly, if it hadn't been for the bandana covering most of her face, Bryan would have had the shock of his life as she muttered every swear word that came to her mind. _'WHY ME?'_ she thought, _'couldn't I have had someone else?'_

She turned around, "is there a problem with sharing a room with me? If there is, I would willingly kick you out."

She turned and pounced onto the bed, curling up into a ball.

"Are you seriously gonna wear that mask thing to bed?"

"Yes."

"Take it off."

"No."

Bryan stomped towards the bed, stretching out his hand, trying to pull the bandana off of her face. Alexis lashed out, knocking him sideways and causing him to smash into the bedside table. Jumping up Bryan slammed her onto the bed, the whole time trying to get a grip on the piece of fabric. Alexis squirmed in his tight grip, accidentally sending herself with Bryan on top of her to the ground.

"OOF!" was all she could manage after the impact.

"Oof is right," Bryan said between his gritted teeth. They started grappling on the floor, shifting position and pushing and pulling the whole time. Alexis squirmed and tugged, spitting out strands of hair that had made their way into her mouth. Bryan was finding it difficult to see with all the hair all over the place. Suddenly, Alexis felt a weight being lifted off of her. Sweeping the hair out of her eyes, she saw Spencer carrying Bryan. Ivan sitting on the bed, a look of disgust on his face, turning towards the door, Alexis saw Tala with his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face. She scowled.

**Tala's P.O.V**

'_God that hair is amazing. The black is so…black. And that red's such a deep red, it's…I can't even think of what to say.'_

"Had a good grapple? I think for the benefit of the rest of the team…we should split these two up," I turned to Spencer and Ivan, "What do you think?"

"Yes."

"Definitely"

"So which of you wants to share a room with Alexis?"

'_Aw! That sweet little frown…everyone, just take a look at him…I think Spencer will get along fine with him. What is he doing? He's still lying on the floor; he could get a cold like that.'_

"Get off the floor Alexis. Get Into bed now_!" 'My, my, I have never been given a death glare like that. Kai would be proud of one like that…'_

"Don't tell me what to do."

Spencer butts in, "I'm tired guys, so I'm going to bed. Come on Ivan. HUP!" he said as he lifted Bryan fireman style out of the room. Bryan didn't seem to object; he just exchanged looks of pure loathing with Alexis.

'_They have just left me with Alexis…who might I add is STILL ON THE FLOOR!!! Oh how sweet…he sleeps like a kitten.'_

Tala moved to the bed on the side, and then remembering he still had to get his stuff from the other room, he got up. Alexis peeked at him through her hair. _'Great…I'm stuck with the captain…At least he's better than that Bryan.'_

**Normal P.O.V**

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The small beeps continued, until Alexis mustered enough energy to move her hand under the cushion to turn off the alarm. This wasn't just any alarm, the people she used to live with had got it custom made for her. It vibrated the bed (yeah don't get any ideas…I only thought of this when I was rereading it. lol I was laughing so hard my mum thought I'd finally lost it), just like her mobile on silent, and the beeps were adjusted so that only her neko-jin hearing could pick it up. Opening her eyes a crack; she let out a hiss and snapped them shut again. Stupid Tala left the curtains open. She groaned and muttered as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Stumbling towards the window, she grabbed hold of the curtains and roughly tugged them shut. She was definitely not a morning person. Looking up she saw a clock facing her, she swore. 5:35. Turning towards the bathroom, she picked up the clothes Tala had set out for her (a red full-sleeved jumper with black jeans. She moved towards the drawer and pulled out some underwear (knickers, bra, a pair of boxers to go over her knickers and a sleeveless top that would make her seem as flat-chested as possible) then walked over to the bedroom's private bathroom, opening the door as quietly as possible and then closing it with an even quieter click.

She turned and looked at herself in the mirror. Slowly and methodically she took off her clothes, her eyes not leaving the reflection, until she reached her underwear. She looked at herself and grimaced. 'They won't ever leave, will they?' she thought as she fingered two scars on each shoulder. Each one looked like someone had brought a ruler and cut along the edge with a razor. Looking back at her face she smiled. Without the bandana she started to inspect her face. Looking at her eyes, then her nose, then her flawless skin, and finally her mouth and she thought of Tai and thanked god that she wasn't disfigured. She looked at her hair and grinned, she was incredibly proud of her hair. It was cut into two layers; one on top of the other (obviously) the first layer was down to her chin, the second below her knees. The top bit ebony, and the bottom was a fiery red. It was silky and smooth, when she brushed it and had a slight shine to it. She liked it. Thinking of her hair, she thought of what had happened last night.

**Flashback**

"Are you seriously sleeping with your hair like that?" asked Tala.

"Humph."

"I'll take that as a yes. UP NOW, you can't sleep like that."

"Hn"

"Have you seen Ray Kon before?"

"Yes…"

"Well…why don't you do your hair like him…at least the bottom layer? Isn't it difficult to brush in the morning?"

"Hn"

"Get up. I have some of those hair bands he's got, black, red or blue? I think black…don't you?"

"…"

Tala walked over to the other's bed and pulled off the blankets, he then pulled Alexis up. Alexis did not take it lightly.

"God ever heard of SLEEP? You know that thing you do when you're TIRED."

"Whatever, just get up."

Tala ran to the draw in the dresser. He pulled out a brush, seeing it Alexis let out a moan. This was so not her day. She sat cross-legged on the bed and watched as he rushed around the room from one cupboard to another. Finally, he came and sat behind her, they shifted their positions till she was sitting with her back to him and her hair falling in his lap.

"God your hair is thick," he whispered in Russian.

"Is that good or bad?" she replied.

"Good…but it can sometimes be annoying." He raked the brush through her hair, pulling her head back roughly every time she began to drop off. She muttered, swore, protested in every way possible, but she still couldn't get her hair out of Tala's vice like grip. Finally, she gave in muttering obscenely in Russian, then turning to English when Tala tutted.

"You do know I also speak English."

"Fuck."

"How sophisticated…"

"Shut up and get on with it." Alexis groaned and hissed as Tala pulled her hair into a tight ponytail, only the bottom layer. He left the top bit so it could still cover up her face. Tala wrapped up the thick strand of hair in the black band and then tied it neatly at the bottom. He then sat back to admire his handy work.

"Off bed"

"Pardon me?" Tala replied his eyebrows rose as Alexis tried to shift him off of her cushion. Tala finally obliged by moving himself and walking towards the other bed.

"Door…Close…"

"Speak properly like a civilized Russian, not a man from the stone age."

Alexis sat up and glared in his direction, "Close the fucking door."

"Oh that's sooo civilized," muttered Tala sarcastically, rolling his eyes to make it more dramatic.

"Shut up. Had enough…Sleep…Now…"

Tala grinned; Alexis scowled not knowing what was so funny. His eyes flashed in the now semi-dark room. Dismissing it, Alexis turned over and finally went to sleep.

**End Flashback**

Alexis undid the band, stripped down, stepped into the shower and then turned the water on. Feeling the warm water beating on her skin made her grin, happiness flowing through her. They would be starting their training at 8:30. Meaning that she had to get ready by 6:30, Tala had told her he woke up at around that time.

When she had finally finished her shower, she stepped out of the bath and wrapped a towel around herself. Picking up another towel, she used it vigorously to dry her hair. 15 minutes later and her hair was dry, but needed a good brushing. She hummed a tune as she began coming through her hair, she then tied it up into a ponytail. She stood in front of the mirror and quickly put her clothes on. Spinning around she fixed the mess she had made in the bathroom.

A few minutes later she opened the door. Before her stood a drowsy Tala, as soon as his eyes wandered to her face, they widened. Alexis felt puzzled, what was wrong with her face? It hit her like a bolt out of the blue, as soon as the thought came to her mind her hand shot up to her face.

"Shit!" she muttered.

There was no bandana.

-: -: -: -: -: -


	6. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

…A few minutes later she opened the door. Before her stood a drowsy Tala, as soon as his eyes wandered to her face, they widened. Alexis felt puzzled, what was wrong with her face? It hit her like a bolt out of the blue, as soon as the thought came to her mind her hand shot up to her face.

"Shit!" she muttered.

There was no bandana….

Tala stood transfixed for a few minutes, minutes that felt like hours to Alexis. Finally, he muttered something about using the bathroom. Moving to the side, Alexis let him pass. She walked to the full-length mirror and looked at her face.

'_Maybe he was just shocked that he'd actually seen my face.'_

She began to examine her face from different angles, like when she frowned or smiled. She noticed that when she frowned, she looked like a boy. Turning her head to the side, she checked out her profile. You couldn't tell whether she was a girl or a boy, it was the hairstyle that helped. She smiled, and gasped. She ran to the dresser and pulled out a beyblade magazine that she knew was there from the night before. Flicking through the pages she finally found what she was looking for, a picture of Ray Kon. Walking back to the mirror again, she smiled. Looking from her reflection to the page and back, she noticed that she didn't look all too different from him, only the hair colour and the shape of the nose. It didn't matter if Tala had seen her face, if she looked like another boy, then he wouldn't need to suspect much. _'But I'm not going to take my chances with the others…that Bryan's got eyes like a hawk.'_ Flicking further through the magazine, she found a picture of Mariah, Lee and the other White Tigers. They also had similar features; the mouth and teeth seemed to match in all of them. She was safe. She hoped. To keep on the safe side, Alexis began to fix her hair, making it cover most of her face, in hope of her features were not too recognizable or noticeable. It worked, with her bangs covering all of her forehead and part of her eyes and nose; she could barely see much of her face. However, she could still see perfectly, and anyone that looked at her would still be able to see most of her eyes.

"Shall I do your hair again?"

Alexis spun around, shocked at how quiet he had been. She saw Tala, standing at the door of the bathroom in nothing but a pair of boxers. Looking closely she saw that he was carrying the black hair band.

"Yeah," she said as she moved to her bed. She watched him as he collected the things from around the room, _'He should walk around in his boxers more often._' She mentally slapped herself, '_where the hell did that thought come from?'_ she thought but still gave into the grin that spread across her face.

"Wait here while I go get dressed," said Tala as he dumped the hair things in her lap, "then when I finish your hair, you can make breakfast." She frowned. _'Who does he think he is telling me to make breakfast?' _

10 minutes later, Tala exited the bathroom. He had washed and dressed and was now walking towards Alexis. He had a brush in his hand, which he was carrying as if it were a weapon. Alexis waited. After he sat behind her, he adjusted his position and started brushing.

"Why did you look shocked when I walked out of the bathroom?"

"You would, if you had just woken up and come face to face with a neko-jin, who might I add had his hair in waves _all over the place_."

"Hn"

"And the fact that you'd never seen said neko-jin's face before."

"I see…Tala?"

"Yes."

"Don't tell the others you've seen my face…ok?"

"Sure, on one condition. That whenever we're going to sleep and are in our room, alone so don't worry, you can't wear the bandana."

"On one condition, that the door is locked."

"Deal," he said as he tugged Alexis's hair. All she could do was grunt.

'_How very lady like of me to grunt,'_ she grinned. "What should we have for breakfast?"

"Pancakes with extra maple syrup…I love maple syrup"

"…"

----

Bryan walked into the kitchen; he could smell the delicious aroma of freshly made pancakes and that sweet smell of maple syrup.

"Hmmmm…We sure need a breakfast like this for the training later. That was a great idea Spencer."

"Huh?" was all Bryan received, with the confused expression as a bonus.

"I meant it was a great idea that you made breakfast today. Thanks."

"I didn't make breakfast. Alexis did."

"He never…"

"He did," said Tala. Alexis who was sitting on the worktop with a mug of cocoa in her hand glared at Bryan. He glared back, but didn't say a word as he silently took a plate piled with food.

----

At roughly 10:00pm the team trooped out of the basement, where the gym was located. They had trained hard and long (or should it be long and hard?). Dinner was quiet, the boys all wolfed down their meal without much grace. On the other hand, Alexis sat and picked at her food.

"Eat, you're gonna need energy for tomorrow."

"I can have breakfast tomorrow. I'm not hungry." She left the table and went to her room. Shutting the door she took out a change of clothes and placed her beyblade onto the bedside table. She hadn't used it during training; it had all been a physical thing like pushups, sit-ups and everything else.

Taking out a pair of black and white striped pyjama bottoms and a large black t-shirt, she walked into the bathroom. She had a quick shower and put on her clothes. Standing quietly, she heard movement from the bedroom. Opening the door a bit, she saw the whole team sprawled all over the room. The worst bit was Bryan was sitting on her bed. No, not sitting, he was lying on it…with his shoes on! Picking up the bandana from the pile of discarded clothes, she stepped out of the bathroom and confronted her teammates.

"How dare you come in here and lie on my bed. That is MY bed. Get off of it. You still have your stupid boots on! Get off NOW!"

"Calm down kitty boy, it's only my shoes."

"It's **only** your _Shoes_! Are you nuts? Get them off _Right Now_. Get off of **_my_** _bed_. And get out of the fucking room!"

Everyone left, except for Tala, who got up and locked the door. "You didn't have to loose your temper like that. After all, it was only his shoes."

Alexis took off her bandana and spun around, her hair flying everywhere. Glaring at him she said, "Shut the fuck up and go to sleep." Climbing into bed, she put her head to the cushion and fell asleep.

**Tala's P.O.V. **

'_Moody! Moody! Doesn't he know having a temper tantrum like that could give him a heart attack?'_

Tala dressed down till he was left in nothing but his boxers, got into his bed and pulled the covers up.

"Don't you want me to fix your hair?"

"Shut up, I'm tired and NO!"

"You sure you don't want me to tie it up?"

"Yes."

"Fine then, be like that…Goodnight Alexis."

"…"

'_Fine misery guts…don't talk to me.'_ He placed Wolborg onto the bedside table beside Alexis's blade. He paused, itching to examine the mysterious blade, but then remembering what Alexis would probably do; he turned over and went to sleep.

-: -: -: -: -: -


	7. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

Tyson sat at the table beside Daichi, wolfing his breakfast down as fast as he could. Kai had, unwillingly, given the team 10 more minutes for breakfast, courtesy of Ray's persistent begging and pleading. Kai, who was waiting beside the kitchen door, surveyed the room. He studied his teammates intently, noting all of their movements form the slight tiredness of Tyson to the hyperactivity of Daichi and Max. He looked over at Hillary, who was at that very moment lecturing both Daichi and Tyson for 'eating like pigs at the table'. Kai had just finished his assessment, when an overexcited Kenny rushed into the kitchen towards him.

"So, when will you be leaving Kai?"

"Leaving?" he asked with a perfectly shaped eyebrow raised.

"You know to go and find out that information we needed"

"What information?" Tyson asked, spraying Ray and Max with bits of pancakes in the process.

"Don't talk with your mouth full Tyson!" scolded Hilary.

"The one for my database"

"What database?"

"Tyson," sighed an exasperated Kenny, "my beybladers database. I thought Kai was going to go and find out some information about that Alexis guy. From what I found out, mind you its not much, is that that beyblader can seriously blade. And I need some information now. So Kai, have you decided when your going?" he turned back to his captain.

Kai stood in silence looking down at the smaller boy.

"Kai…"

"It's Tuesday…so I'll go next Thursday." With that, he turned and left the kitchen.

"Oh great Kenny…you pissed him off…now he's probably going to make us train twice as hard," groaned Daichi.

-----

"Tai…?" Alexis squeaked. She shot straight up. She breathed in deeply, swinging her legs nimbly over to the left hand side of the bed, "OW!" She gasped as her ankles and heels collided with a cold wall. She looked to her left confused, where was she? Then slowly recognition of her dark surroundings dawned on her. She was at Skreknell. So what was it that had awoken her? What had made her remember Tai? Then she heard it, a low sobbing sound coming from somewhere to her right. She frowned, _'Tala? He's crying?_' She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, this time on the right, and settled them onto the pile of clothes beneath her feet. Getting up, she walked over to the other bed occupying the room. She stood over the bed and watched as Tala sobbed in his sleep, _'I wonder what he's dreaming of'_ she sunk onto the bed and wrapped her arm around the older boy's shoulders. Lifting him ever so slightly, she shifted her position till his head rested on her chest and she was able to cuddle him to her chest. Still sobs seemed to rip through her captain's body as he shuddered at whatever was in his dream. She began to rock him slightly, singing a small song that she had invented for such an occasion. She smiled as she sang, her mind roaming back in time to the first time she had ever used it.

**Flashback**

Alexis's eyes opened, she had awoken to the sound of low sobbing. Swinging her legs over the left hand side of the bed, she then made her way to the small bed at the other end of the cramped room. Pulling the covers off of the small girl occupying the bed, Alexis muttered some unintelligible words in Russian. She lifted the younger girl in her arms and settled down onto the bed with the small youngster in her arms. Rocking backwards and forwards, Alexis began to hum a tune trying to sooth the girl in her arms. Then without realizing she began to sing a rhyme, her voice barely above a whisper.

Tai oh Tai

You don't need to cry,

'Coz I'm right here by your side.

I will cry if you cry

So my little Tai

Please understand

That I hate it when you cry,

Every time I hear you cry

I let out a little sigh.

Do you know that when you cry a little piece of my heart will die?

By the end of the little rhyme Alexis realized that the little girl had stopped crying and was now sleeping peacefully. Her left arm wrapped around Alexis's waist, while her right clung onto a thick strand of Alexis's hair. Alexis smiled at their contrast. Where Alexis's hair was black and red, Tai's hair was like a river of platinum. Alexis was tall for her age, her bone structure more defined than the average female neko-jin, yet Tai was so delicate people were afraid of breaking her when they hugged her. Where Alexis sat in silence, loving the peace and quite, Tai was bubbly and loved singing and dancing. Alexis allowed a grin to spread as she looked down at the little girl's face, _'she looks like an angel…my little angel,'_ she thought. She pushed back the platinum locks on Tai's forehead. The large crystal orbs flickered open for a moment, but shut again as she nestled into Alexis's front.

**End Flashback**

Alexis looked down at Tala's sleeping form; something was different. Then she realized that the sleeping teen had stopped crying, _'He must have stopped while I was remembering the old times. I guess I zoned out for a while.'_ Lifting Tala off of her, she got off of the bed and put him back onto the mattress. She looked at him properly for the first time; he was wearing nothing except for a pair of boxers. Alexis felt a blush rise on her cheeks, so she hastily covered the boy up and tucked the sheets around him.

Sighing, she turned her head over to where she remembered the clock would be. She did a double take. The hands on the clock's face were glowing in the dark. She smiled, and then stiffened. She had just heard something and she knew what it was. Someone had unlocked the front door. Although it was downstairs, her sensitive neko-jin hearing picked up the sound quickly. Spinning on her heel, she moved to the door unlocking it and opening it as quietly as possible. Edging out to the landing and then to the top of the stairs, she listened to any telltale sounds that would give away the intruders whereabouts. He was downstairs, and if she wasn't mistaken, in the living room. Creeping ever so quietly down the stairs, she listened harder and looked around her eyes seeing the outlines of objects clearer than the normal person would. _'Whoever is downstairs is going to get a surprise when they meet me'_. She was now crouched in the shadows to the side of the living room door. Peeking around the doorframe, she could see the entire room and there in the end of the room, with his back to her; the intruder stood and was fiddling with some tools and the grandfather clock on the mantelpiece. She scowled. Slinking into the room, she made her way all the way up to the intruder and readied herself. She brought her hand down hardly onto the intruder's shoulder, shocking the living daylights out of him.

"FUCK!"

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a low voice, which was muffled courtesy of the bandana. The intruder didn't even reply, quickly jumping into an attack. He brought his foot round, trying to kick her in the head. Alexis caught his foot when it was millimetres away. She pushed him with all her might, making him collapse into the fireplace. He jumped up and aimed a heavy tool at her. She ducked, but that gave him the opportunity to get up and lunge at her. Spinning around, she rammed her fist into his gut, but instead of hearing the usual 'Oof', she heard a chuckle as her forearm was grabbed and twisted behind her back. Quickly she kicked the intruder in the shin, knocked the back of her head into his nose, elbowed him in the stomach and pulled her arm out of his grasp. The man was now cursing fluently in Russian under his breath. He lunged at her again, but she jumped nimbly up onto the back of the couch. The intruder continued to try and catch her, but she jumped off of the back and landed on all fours. Looking up at him, she quickly analysed the situation. She pounced, like a tiger up onto the back of the couch and onto the intruder. He now was on his back with his arms pinned above his head and Alexis straddling his chest. Quickly, she pulled the wrap that Tala used to tie her hair up out of her pyjama pocket. The man seemed to be out of his daze and began to struggle. She head butted him in the nose, again and then sunk her fist into his gut. The man was winded and now Alexis was able to turn him over onto his front without him protesting. Tying the man's arms behind his back with the wrap, she slowly moved to his feet where she took out the shoelaces from both of the boots, tying them around his ankles.

"Make one move and I'll knock you out with your own tool box."

She quickly bound out of the room and up the stairs. Rushing into her and Tala's room, she shook her captain awake and dragged him out of the bed, ignoring his protests. She pulled him behind her into Ivan and the others' room and yelled, "WE HAVE A BURGLAR IN THE HOUSE!"

Bryan, Ivan and Spencer all shot out of the bed and towards the door, and then stopped. As one, they turned around and Ivan said, "If there's a burglar, why did you shout? He could have gotten away, you fool." Alexis didn't even bother answering his question. Dragging Tala by one hand and Ivan by the other, she led the team downstairs and into the living room. The boys all sucked in huge breaths once they saw the intruder tied up and barely conscious on the ground. Tala crouched by the man and asked, "Why are you here?"

"Shut the fuck up and UNTIE MEEE!"

Bryan pounced onto the man's back and pulled him by his hair, "That's my captain you're talking to like that. Now show some respect, or…" he looked around the room, "I'll shove that spanner up your arse. So now answer us nicely, why are you here?"

"I'm not telling you."

"Well that's too bad," hissed Bryan.

"'Coz if we don't get a good answer, we'll still shove that spanner up your arse," continued Spencer. Ivan lifted afore mentioned spanner off of the ground and wielded it menacingly. Bryan got off of the man's back and Spencer lifted him up and dumped him onto a chair, tying him up with the wrap that Alexis had used. Noticing the wrap, Tala turned around and grinned at Alexis. Alexis smirked at him from behind her bandana, but although her mouth was hidden, Tala had gotten to know her so well that he knew she was smirking.

"Well done Alexis," he praised, "that was one hell of a job."

Alexis purred involuntarily, Tala's grin widened. Turning back to the man on the chair, he studied him quietly as Spencer, Bryan and Ivan took it in turns to try and interrogate the man using very graphic threats. "Turn on the light Ivan," ordered Tala. As soon as the light was on, Tala's eyes were narrowed. "I know who he is, and who he works for."

The team fell silent. At this Alexis studied the man closer, "Isn't that…Mr. Grey face?"

"Yes," said Bryan smirking at Alexis's nickname for the man before them.

Tala looked the man up and down, from his battered face to his tattered trousers, "It's Stanislov, Balkov's manservant and right hand man." (You know the guy who opened the door for Alexis in the prologue)

-: -: -: -: -: -


	8. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

Spencer and Ivan both peered closer at the man strapped to his seat before them.

"So it is…so it is," whispered Ivan under his breath. Alexis looked at her teammates in the room with her she shivered slightly. Alexis scanned the room her eyes finally resting on the fireplace. The boys around her stood in silence, moving ever so quietly so they wouldn't be distracted from whatever it was they were thinking of, she picked up a few logs from the pile and placed them into the fireplace. She took the matchbox from the mantelpiece and struck a match, throwing it into the ashes and the logs, which caught fire. She poked the logs and moved the ashes around with a poker to allow the air to get in. the fire blossomed and spread. Her cat instincts made her move closer, to forget about what was going on behind her. She sighed and finally pulled away from the dancing flames.

"You do know you could have just turned the heating on," commented Bryan.

She looked him in the eyes and then finally nodded, "wasn't bothered to leave the room."

He nodded and turned back to Stanislov, the rest of the team were now standing around the seated man looming over him menacingly, all except for Ivan who still seemed menacing even though his head was just a bit higher than the seated Stanislov's. Alexis yawned and then stepped in front of Stanislov; she bent over till her face was inches away from his face. He looked up at her. She frowned, what was with this guy. Suddenly, he spat at her. She pulled back; the rest of the team would have pounced on him if she hadn't raised her hand.

"Why?" she asked.

"Spawn of the devil!" he hissed.

She frowned, where had she heard that before. "How am I the spawn of Satan?"

"You're a jinn…a demon…he's going to kill you in your sleep!" he shouted his eyes roaming over the boys. Alexis let out a short burst of laughter, making Stanislov flinch. She brought her hand close to his face slowly. He pulled his head back as far as possible to get away from her hand. She grimaced and dropped her hand. The rest of the team hissed and spat insults at the Russian man. He ignored them. Alexis stepped away as soon as Bryan lifted his fist and punched the man in the stomach. She heard the man being beaten, not wanting to get involved, she turned to the window where she was greeted with the view of the sunrise over snow covered houses. Russian winters were beautiful, and so were Russian sunrises. Together it was a breathtaking sight that she still was amazed at when she watched it, although she had been living in Russia from before she could remember and had seen so many sunrises.

Her eyes narrowed as she spotted 3 white vans at each end of the road, this was definitely not good. She beckoned to Tala who had been observing the torturing of Stanislov. He stepped over to the window and growled as he realised what she was trying to show him. They quickly rushed upstairs and into their room. Tala threw on a white jumper, a pair of red jeans and black boots, which he tucked the jeans into. Alexis donned a pair of jeans over her pyjama bottoms and a red fleece. Pulling her doc martins on she followed Tala as he stomped down the stairs. Moving to the door, Alexis peered through the peephole while Tala went and told the others what was outside.

"It may be just a suspicious thought," he murmured into Alexis's ear, "we'll only look quickly and come back…agreed?"

She nodded and opened the door. They both strode to the closest of the vans and stopped at the side door. Alexis rapped her fist on the frozen metal and they both waited. Out of the van a man dressed in white from head to toe stepped out and looked them up and down.

"What are you doing here?" he rasped.

"Finding out what you're doing here," replied Tala.

"That is none of your business. Ours alone." The man turned around and stepped into the van. Tala nodded at Alexis and they walked back to the house in silence. As soon as they shut the door they walked over to Stanislov and Tala asked in a hushed yet menacing voice, "what are they doing outside? The men in the whit van…are they with you?"

Stanislov let out a muffled curse as someone had stuffed what appeared to be a face cloth into his mouth. Alexis pulled it out.

"Why ask?" he asked.

Alexis spun on her heel as she had just heard something. Running to the front door she stopped in her tracks as something huge crashed into it from the other side. Spencer and Bryan came to see what had happened, they were both ready with hammers and spanners in their hands. Alexis stood stock still and her back straight, legs bent and ready to pounce. Her right hand was curled into a fist and in her left she carried her switchblade that she had just pulled out of her pocket. The door crashed open and what seemed to be half a dozen men in white poured in. Alexis slashed at the first one, her blade making contact with something metallic. Around her Spencer and Bryan punched and hit, they were joined by Tala and Ivan.

Alexis kicked, punched and slashed at the men in white. Spencer seemed to knock them with a hammer on whatever part of their body he could hit. Bryan was wielding a spanner as if he had been born with it in his hand, he was the first to knock out his opponent, but was in turn knocked out by a large bear of a man from behind. Alexis attacked the man suddenly, recoiling instinctively when the small gadget in his hand swung at her. Her eyes narrowed, it was a stun gun. She slashed at the man, not knowing that several other men in white had piled into the hose. The fight spread from the hallway into the living room. Each blitzkrieg boy, excluding Bryan, was up against three of the men in white.

Ivan jumped onto one of the men's back and jumped off when a stun gun came down in his direction. The man Ivan had hitched a ride on crumpled from the shot of charge. Gradually, all of the boys and Alexis were knocked out. Alexis had been fighting a man and winning. Her mind screamed at her to turn around, but two men grabbed her and a third jabbed the stun gun at her cheek. Volt after volt shot through her body. She shook and screamed as the men jabbed at her again and again to make her shut up. Finally, one of the knocked her on the head with a heavy object, and she blacked out.

-: -: -: -: -: -

**Tala's P.O.V.**

I opened my eyes and couldn't see, so I shut them and opened them again. This time I realised why I couldn't see anything, my eyes were covered in a thick black fabric. I tried moving my hand but felt my wrists bruise as a thick, rough cord grated against my skin.

"Tala?" I heard someone call my name. It was Bryan.

"Hn?"

"Are you strapped up too?"

"Yup?"

"Are we still at home?"

"How am I meant to know?"

"Spencer? Ivan…Alexis?"

"Yep," that was Spencer.

"What's up Bryan…how you doing all tied up?"

"Ivan, it's not a time to be sarcastic."

"Wait!" yelled Bryan, "Alexis? Alexis!"

"Hn…"

"Thank god." I murmured. I didn't want Alexis to be gone. I heard shifting and shuffling as something moved my way. I hated not being able to see.

"Stupide," muttered Alexis as I heard someone bump into something. I grinned; he was talking French again. It's strange, he knows so many languages, but he seems to be someone who didn't go to school.

"Has everyone got a blindfold on?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"No…"

"Alexis, you haven't got a blindfold on?"

"No I haven't… but I seem to be tied up more than any of you. None of you have your feet tied together, and none of you are tied to a table leg."

"Oh…have they all gone," that was Ivan.

"As far as I can see or hear."

"How long have we been knocked out for?"

Silence.

"Alexis!" yelled Bryan. He could get in a right mood when he wanted to.

"13 and a half hours."

"Oh."

"Ivan. Can you make it to me? I think I can untie you if you get your position right."

I could hear Ivan crawling across the room and Alexis directing him.

"Left a bit…Turn round the table…stick your head on my lap…" then silence.

"I CAN SEE!"

"Shut it…now move this way. Yes…okay then…and there. Now you can untie me." Alexis had untied Ivan.

"HOLY SHIT! How am I supposed to get you out of that…and why does the living room look like some goblins decided to play a game of five-a-side football?"

"Because they did…now untie me. There's a blade in my boot."

Silence.

"You have a blade in your boot?" yelled Bryan. I was shocked myself.

"Yes…undo the buckle on the back…now stick your hand down _behind_ my calf…yes now careful. Good. My wrists now…"

"They've gone and tied a rope round his chest so he's against the table leg."

Wow…Alexis must have been difficult for them. I wasn't surprised.

**Normal P.O.V.**

Five minutes later Alexis and Ivan were moving around the room to untie the rest of us. Alexis moved over to Bryan, she pulled the rope round the blade and began working on it. It was a thick cord, so it took her quiet a while.

"You know you could have pulled off the blindfold first…so I could SEE."

"Yes."

Silence. When she finally finished she turned to Tala, as Ivan still seemed to be working on Spencer.

"Spencer…can you TURN OVER!"

Grunt.

Alexis quickly pulled the blindfold off of her captain's eyes and started working on his bonds. When she finished she got up and stretched. The team looked around at the mess surrounding them. Wires and cables seemed to have been pulled out of Spencer's cupboard at the end of the room. Ivan's repair kit for his beyblade had its contents strewn all over the place. Bryan's video shelves were knocked over and the videos had joined the mess on the carpet. The couches were turned over and the room was a mess.

"Stanislov…he's gone," pointed out Spencer as he kicked the vacant chair.

"What is Boris playing at? How can he do this to us? We're his TEAM!" yelled Bryan. Alexis looked at him.

"Why did you let him take over the blitzkrieg boys again?"

"He said that we could rule the team, he just wanted to be the manager by name. It was in a contract. He did all the paper work. I have the actual copy of the contract in a vault."

Alexis nodded at Tala after he explained everything.

"We were reluctant at first," he carried on, "but we joined him in the end. He gave us a place to stay and allowed us to have what we needed…he even said when we wanted to we could leave him."

"Leave him then," whispered Alexis. She lifted her hand to her face as she yawned and then smiled as she realised the men hadn't taken off her bandana.

"We don't need to…not yet."

"We should get someone to clean up…" interjected Spencer.

"I'll do it," said Alexis shocking them all, "go get dressed and get a hotel room. It looks like they've ruined the whole house," she said pointing at the mess spread on the stairs. They all nodded and trudged to their rooms. Alexis was right, the men had created a mess all over the house. What had they done it for? Had they taken anything? She walked into her room and smiled as she saw that the box she had brought with her had been untouched. She would have gone mad if anyone had opened it.

"Well," said Tala as the boys stood at the door, "call us if you need us."

Alexis nodded and shut the door on their retreating backs. She started cleaning right away; the living room was done first. She brought a black bin bag and filled it with all the broken objects, she started from the corner and then worked her way round the room. After an hour of cleaning Alexis was sure that someone or something was watching her. She pulled out her beyblade from her pocket and stroked the sharp edges for comfort.

'_Look around you Alexis…there really is something watching you.'_

Alexis turned slowly pretending to be looking for the bag.

'_Are you sure Pantera?'_

'_Look in the corner, on the top of Bryan's video rack.'_

'_That's just a model of his bitbeast.'_

'_It's been meddled with.'_

Alexis picked up the videos and put them on the shelf neatly. She picked up the model and adjusted its position. She didn't look at it directly, but she understood what Pantera had told her. There was something wrong with the eyes. They were black…hadn't they been a different colour?

'_Yes Alexis…they were different…can you guess what they've done?'_

She picked up and then held the bitbeast model at arms length and shook it.

'_It's a camera… I think Boris is watching us.'_

'_Correct. Well done Alexis.'_

Alexis continued to tidy the room as if she hadn't noticed anything. Pantera, her bitbeast, pointed out three others after a while Alexis's own sharp eyes seemed to notice the smallest changes to the objects in the room. After wiping the shelves and tables and hoovering (is that a word?) the floor Alexis made her way to the kitchen where she stayed three hours wiping and scrubbing the food that seemed to be pasted all over the walls, floor and the kitchen utensils. She found 4 other cameras and 2 voice pick-ups. She hated Boris more and more as she moved about the kitchen. She finally moved to the hallway and picked the dirty laundry that the men had dragged out of the laundry room. Moving throughout the house finding cameras in the laundry room, bedrooms, Tala's office, Spencer's weapons room, Ivan's workroom and the gym. She was surprised at the number in the gym, it seemed to be over 30 and it was bothering her a lot.

'_He seems to want to keep an eye on you,' _whispered Pantera as Alexis noticed that there were tracking devices hidden in the heels of Ivan's boots, shoes and trainers. Bryan's had them in his too. Spencer's clothes seemed to be loaded with them and Tala's as well. She turned to her clothes and grimaced as she found her pockets had been searched and her clothes were all over the room. Every piece of garment in her drawers and closet had a tracking device; even a few of the boxers had them.

'_He's sure is a sly fox…but no one can beat me,'_ thought Alexis.

'_Alexis, you are not a fox,'_ laughed Pantera, _'you are a neko-jin.'_

'_It was a figure of speech,'_ she hissed.

'_And I was joking Mistress.'_

'_Don't call me Mistress.'_

'_I can call you whatever I want…Mistress.'_

'_Males…' _spat Alexis and continued cleaning.

Throughout the evening Alexis combed through the rooms and even the next day she went through them all. She left all the cameras and every other type of device in their places, everything that was except for the tracking devices. Those she picked out and placed them into one plastic bag, which she left in the garage. The garage surprisingly hadn't been touched and not even Pantera could find anything.

-----

Alexis lay on the rug before the fire, playing with the bandana tied around the lower part of her face. She had been in the house alone for two nights now; she had spent the most of the morning asleep but had woken up around midday to go for a walk. When she had been out she had taken the opportunity to buy some necessary groceries; the necessary ingredients to make beef burgers and salads. She also bought snacks and anything else she remembered the white men had used to mess up the kitchen. She sighed, it had been hard, but she'd made the house better than it had been before.

'_Today's Thursday…'_ muttered Pantera.

'_What's that supposed to mean?'_

'_28th December…'_

'_And?'_

'_Only a few days left till the 5th of January…'_

'_OH SHUT UP! I was trying to relax. Now I won't be able to go to sleep tonight…ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!' _she spat and shut her eyes.

'I'm sorry Mistress, I…' 

'_DON'T CALL ME MISTRESS!'_

'_Sorry…Alexis…I think you should go into the state of calm, it will calm you down and allow you to push it away.'_

'_I can't,'_ she whispered, _'I feel so guilty.'_

'_It wasn't your fault Alexis, you didn't know.'_

'_I DID!' _she shouted.

Silence.

Then she continued in a whisper _'and I could have stopped it from happening…I was so stupid.' _She turned onto her stomach and buried her face in the rug. "I WAS SO STUPID!" she shouted out loud and let out an anguished sob, which was muffled slightly by the rug. She continued to cry, but silently and without moving. Slowly she drew into herself, her mind moving back into a small room in her mind. Her breathing evened out and her tears stopped. She sat up, legs crossed and arms limp at her side; she inhaled and exhaled deeply, her mind at rest inside itself.

'_Well done Alexis,'_ praised Pantera.

Alexis took the beyblade out of her pocket, placing it on the rug in front of her. The room seemed to darken and out of the chip on the blade a black panther seemed to step out. It stretched its body and flexed its claws.

'_Thank you Alexis I needed a bit of a stretch.'_ The beast's and his mistress's eyes met, gold clashing with gold. The panther, which was as high as her chest if Alexis stood up, dropped in front of the fire extending it's red claws. Alexis looked at her bitbeast and smiled, they were so similar it was like they were made for each other. Pantera had golden eyes, the exact same colour as Alexis's, his fur was pitch black, and his front paws looked like the fur on them had been died red in the pattern of flames. However, his back paws had a single spiral going up each in icy blue. Not many understood why he had these; he and Alexis were the only one who did. Alexis buried her fingers into the thick fur of his back, unlike other bitbeasts Pantera could be handled physically by his owner. Alexis scratched him behind his ears and he responded to her with an almighty growl. She smirked, cuddling closer to him.

'_Remember when Tai would sleep on the other side?'_ she whispered.

Pantera replied with a low purr at the memory. Alexis snuggled closer; her hair spread out around her and seemed to disappear in Pantera's fur.

The doorbell rang and a key turned in the lock.

'_They're back,'_ said Alexis to Pantera in her mind.

Alexis returned to her normal state and glared at Pantera who was still lying in front of the fire.

"Alexis! We're back!" Alexis heard Spencer shout to her. She turned to the door and waited for them to come in. A huge figure dressed in green stepped into the room and let out a low whistle. "How you been buddy? Missed us? Wow…you _have _been cleaning."

Alexis looked into his eyes and nodded once. He took his boots off and left them by the door. "Hey guys!" he said before they made their way down the hallway, "new rule: no shoes allowed in the house. You walk in slippers or bare foot. We want the house to stay clean. BRYAN what did I just say?"

Alexis grinned behind the bandana.

Tala came in and smirked at Alexis once he'd seen the entire room, "nice job."

Ivan saluted her from the door. She raised her eyebrows at him questioningly. He grinned at her, "its so clean I was wondering if you were gonna get a sergeant to come in and do the white glove test thing." He laughed at his own joke.

"Not funny!" came Bryan's voice from behind him as he pushed the smaller boy out of the way. Alexis's eyes met his violet ones and he frowned. "I hope you've tidied my video shelf properly."

Alexis rolled her eyes at him and turned back to Pantera. He had returned to the blade, which was sitting idly letting off a glow from the chip. The rest of the blitzkrieg boys looked at the beyblade, they had never seen it in action. The light intensified. The light, black and red (yes there is black light in my story…you know the black light in animes) seemed to increase and Alexis frowned, what was Pantera doing?

"Is that blade doing that by itself?" asked Bryan a tinge of astonishment in his voice.

"Hn."

"Wow…" they all said from behind her.

Then the blade began to rock, the sides rolling on the floor. It continued to roll as if it was being pulled in a circle by a string, slowly getting faster and faster. Alexis realised what Pantera was doing and growled at him, "Pantera stop showing off."

The bitbeast took no notice and the blade got faster, so fast its sides lifted off of the ground and it began to spin on its point.

"Enough Pantera! They've seen what you can do."

The blade jumped into her hand. "That was amazing!" gasped Ivan in awe.

"I've never seen such a thing, I never knew that bitbeasts can act on their own," said Spencer, his eyes as big as saucers.

Pantera let out a purr from inside the chip. Even Alexis was slightly shocked, she smiled at her blade and dropped it into her pocket.

"That bitbeast has a mind of its own," whispered Bryan, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"You called him Pantera, I take it he's a panther," said Tala.

Alexis nodded.

"Well," he continued, "you can show us some things tomorrow in training."

Alexis shook her head, "I have somewhere I need to go tomorrow. I'm most likely to be back late."

"You can't leave without training," he said a frown plastered on his face.

"I'll be leaving at about 8. It'll take me a while to get to where I'm going and back."

Tala glared at her, "you can't go without training."

"I have to…it's important"

His frown deepened, "fine, but next time you ask me before you make a decision."

She nodded in agreement.

"Have you had dinner?" he asked, "we have."

"Yes."

"Well, let's go to bed. It's already 10:30."

"We usually sleep later," interjected Bryan.

"We have a lot of training to catch up to tomorrow." The boys groaned and muttered under their breaths.

"Idiot imbécile," (I'm not sure if that's right…correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that idiot and idiotic are the same in French…I'm not a French speaker) muttered Alexis. Tala chuckled and the other boys grinned. She knew they understood and spoke French, but it was fun to speak something other than Russian all the time.

-: -: -: -: -: -

_**Ok you have to remember that the blitzkrieg boys all speak Russian to each other. If they come in contact with other Russians, they speak Russian with them (other Russians like Kai). If they meet a Spanish team, then they might speak either Spanish or Japanese. If they meet the bladebreakers, they will definitely speak in Japanese. That is unless they don't want them to understand what they're saying so they'll use Russian. If, let's say Alexis is alone with a Chinese person, she will use Chinese (unless said Chinese person knows Russian). Alexis knows a lot of languages: -Russian, -French, -Spanish, -English, -Japanese, -German and she can understand other languages like… Irish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Italian.**_


	9. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

The boy shivered as he walked back to his apartment, he had been out since early in the morning to do his morning job. He was on his way back to his apartment and was currently carrying a few bags with some necessities for the weekend ahead. He was freezing and couldn't wait to get back to his 1 bedroom flat.

He was average height and build for a 17 year old. He had brown hair that fell into chocolate brown eyes. He was wearing a cream coloured fur coat that was open to reveal a white fleece. He wore a pair of black jeans with a black studded belt and a pair of black boots.

He stepped into the block of flats and let out a deep sigh as he climbed the stairs to the 5th floor. Once he got to his apartment door, he lent on the frame to catch his breath. Finally, he took out his key and opened the door. He stepped into the cramped hallway and closed the door with his foot. Dodging the boxes that were piled precariously in the hallway he moved into the kitchen. There he emptied his shopping bags into the cupboards and fridge. It was a tiny kitchen, but big enough for him.

He groaned as he pulled his jacket and boots off, leaving his seat to turn the heating on and filled the kettle to make himself a cup of hot chocolate. He sat back down on the chair and stretched. He got up again when the kettle turned off and made his drink. He left the kitchen and slumped on the couch in the living room, picking up the remote and packet of biscuits on the small coffee table in the process. (Sorry, but I can't describe what I have in mind. Bear with me…it might just get better)

The bell rang. He grumbled as he got up and walked to the front door. He opened it and stood stock still as he recognised whom the figure before him was. As he would have expected, this person wasn't even panting after the long flight of stairs and he knew they wouldn't have stooped for a breather for two reasons. One, this person was fit enough to run up and down a mountain if the need had arisen, and two, there was still snow on their coat.

"Hey!" was all he could say.

Silence.

"Want to come in?" he said as he mentally beat himself for his lack of livelihood. He stepped to the side and allowed the newcomer to pass by him. This guest seemed to know the layout of the flat already as they walked quickly and silently into the living room. Seating themselves on the small couches barely two feet away from each other; they sat in silence and eyed one another.

"You've changed," he blurted out and mentally kicked himself. He had never been able to act as cool and reserved around this person. It had been simple in front of his other friends…but this individual was different, always able to bring out one's true self and not an imitation of what they wanted to be.

"So have you," came the soft reply.

"How long has it been?"

"Since the beginning of February…nearly 11 months."

They sat in silence. Each thinking of what had happened to split them up.

"How are the others?"

He was shocked. Since when had this person bothered to ask about the others, wasn't it the others who had made them leave?

"Em…well I um…guess they're fine."

The newcomer got up abruptly, surprising the boy, and left the room. "Where are you going?" he asked following his 'guest' through to the kitchen.

"Kitchen…hot cocoa."

"Oh," he said, "sooo, where have you been all these months? Been beyblading much?"

"Hn."

After the visitor made their hot drink, they sat at the table, warily scanning the other.

"How did you know I'd moved out here? I mean you'd have to speak to the others so that you'd find out, and I know you didn't do that."

"I have my ways."

"I see…and exactly what were your ways?"

Silence.

"You were always so quiet."

"I know."

"Except when you got really mad…or you were acting."

"You were always so shy around me." He looked away.

"I see you're as blunt as ever Alexis." The girl in front of him grinned. He blushed ever so slightly and turned away. Yes, she still had that affect on him.

"You haven't changed a bit Dalmotov…"

"HEY!" he shouted, "you know I don't like being called that."

"Fine _Dally_."

"That's better," he smiled at her and she smirked at him again. He let out a sigh; "it's been so different since you've left. Everyone's been running all over the place. Katya and Tina are staying with Misha and Antonov, Alex decided to move in with one of his friends, Ian wants to join the army, Gustafson wants to find his family in Germany, Maria wants to get a job as an airhostess and I'm stuck in this place with two jobs. So what have you been up to?"

Alexis cocked her head to the side ad fiddled with the strap on her top, "oh this and that."

"I've seen you beyblade…but not for a while. I went around August and you were up against that _huge_ guy, you know the Spanish guy. I was so happy you won…although I was sure you would from the beginning."

Alexis looked at him and yet again got up quickly. This time she took her jacket and slung it onto the back of the chair. She was left in a sleeveless black top and a pair of red leather trouser that clung to her curves, leaving no room for imagination. She sat back down.

"He wasn't the greatest beyblader, I've battled better," she said as her mind wondered to Tala, Bryan, Spencer and Ivan.

"Shall we go to the living room? It's more comfortable there."

Her eyes bore into his, "and you won't have a table in the way when you stare at my body." She got up leaving him shocked in his seat. She forgot how much she loved teasing him, forgot how fun it was to taunt him about the obvious crush he had on her, the crush that he kept on denying. She stretched on the couch, her long legs falling over the armrest. He stood stock still in the doorway.

"You know exactly how to torture me," he whispered. She laughed and turned the TV on with her foot.

"Remote," she ordered.

"I'll give it to you…only if you give me something in return."

"Since when have you been so bold?" she asked an amused expression on her face.

He blushed severely this time, "I…um…uh…I didn't mean what you think I did…I meant the biscuits," he said pointing at the packet near her leg.

"Oh…" she grinned and exchanged the biscuits for the remote. She began flicking through the channels, not really paying any attention as her mind was focused on this morning.

**Flashback**

Alexis shot up; her stupid alarm was ringing and vibrating the bed, as it always did. She turned to the side and glared at the peacefully sleeping Tala. He wouldn't hear the alarm; he only had the human capacity of hearing. Whereas Alexis could hear much higher pitched sounds. She got up and had a shower and got dressed quickly. When she finished, she pulled out a small wooden box that was pushed to the furthest part of the 'land under the bed', as she put it. She pulled a key out of the many pockets of her trench coat that was draped on the foot of her bed. She turned to check Tala was still asleep, he was, and opened the lock on the box. She pulled out the only thing that was in it, a pair of red leather trousers and a black sleeveless top. Stuffing them into a rucksack that she had taken out the night before, she got up and made her way to the kitchen. She dumped the rucksack in the corner of the kitchen, where she could keep an eye on it, and made the breakfast. First down was Tala who sat at the table waiting for the rest of the team, after him came Spencer and Ivan and finally Bryan. Alexis piled their breakfasts onto 4 separate plates and smaller pile on a plate for herself. She finished her breakfast in less than 5 minutes, whereas the rest of her team were still struggling with their own plates. Struggling was the wrong word; it was more like 'scoffing down their food as fast as possible, but still not enough to finish their plate so quickly'.

"You seem to be anxious to leave," said Tala as soon as she washed her plate and put it on the rack to dry.

"Hn."

"Where exactly are you going?" asked Ivan.

"Somewhere."

"No shit!" said Bryan sarcastically, spraying Ivan and Spencer in the process.

Alexis grinned, "Yes shit." Picking up her bag she mad her way out of the kitchen.

"Wait Alexis!" she turned to Tala who had spoken, "Kai called last night. You know Kai don't you? Yes, well he's coming next Friday, just thought you'd like to know before I forget." The boys around him snorted, it was a well-known fact that he was the most organised amongst them.

"Hn," she said as she turned and left. Walking briskly through the streets, she moved in the direction of the city centre. She turned away from the shopping district and ran around a barrier that stopped people like her from entering the wildlife park. Making sure no one had followed her, she hid behind a tree and stripped down to her underwear. She even took off her boxers and vest top (the one that was so tight it made her seem chest less). She stepped into the leather trousers and begun the struggle of pulling them up her legs and over her bum. It wasn't so difficult in warm weather, but as it was near the New Year, the trousers were cold and stiff. She buckled them up and placed a black belt with a red buckle over it. She pulled her boots back on and did them up, finally pulling the sleeveless top over her head. Alexis didn't have such a huge chest, she was between a size A and a B, depending on what type of bra she was wearing. This was the reason the tight vest top, which was made of a thin but strong rubbery material. As it was incredibly tight on her, it seemed that she had a chest the size of zero. Stuffing the jeans and top she had left the house in into the bag, she pulled the trench coat on and buttoned it up. Finally, she stuffed the bag in among the roots of a tree and covered it in leaves. She pulled out her penknife and slashed three xs onto the dead bark. At last she made her way back to the entrance of the park, not before she pocketed Pantera and pulled off her bandana.

She made her way slowly to the slum side of Moscow, which took her around an hour. Weaving in and out of the morning crowd, it was roughly 9:00 and she wanted to get to her destination on time. She turned into a relatively clean and tidy neighbourhood, compared to what she had been trudging in the last hour, and realised why it was different. There was what appeared to be a police car.


	10. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

Alexis knew that it was only there to patrol the streets, yet she was still wary of it. Still cautious of what they could do to her. She crossed onto the opposite road, just in case, and began making her way along the road.

"Excuse me young lady!" Alexis ignored the speaker and continued to trudge through the thick, packed snow. "EXCUSE ME MISS!"

"What!" she roared back as she spun on her heel. She blanched. Getting out of what she had thought to be police patrol car was a man fully dressed in black. He was wearing a black beret, black tight shirt (Showing extra muscled chest) black bomber jacket, black skinny jeans and to top it all off a pair of knee high black doc martins. Alexis froze, where had she seen him before? And if she knew him…then he must know her. What did he want with her?

"Alexis, yes?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Alexis just stared back. "Remember me? Antonio?"

In the back of her mind Pantera was screaming, hissing and shouting, _'Alexis get away from HIM! Just turn around and LEAVE!'_

"You don't remember me do you? I'll remind you…" he paused, his bright green eyes shining into hers. "Remember in Italy? Hotel? Add in 23 shots of Vodka? Jacuzzi?" Alexis groaned inwardly. This was not what she needed right now. What she did need was a specific gadget. One that would help her in blocking Balkov out of Skreknell, it was unnerving knowing that the man was watching their every move. She had even been forced to sleep in her bandana for the past few days. She needed something, and that wasn't a guy from another country turning up to remind her of a drunken mistake.

"I'm not stupid Antonio…I remember exactly who you are."

"Well why didn't you say so? Come I have something to show you."

"Look Antonio, I'm really sorry but I got to go and get something. IT'S URGENT! And I haven't got time."

"One minute only," he said in his accented Russian. She groaned.

"One minute," she said her voice full of warning. He nodded his reply. She followed him, a few feet behind, until they reached the car. Sitting in the front was a man, also dressed in black, and a young boy of about 12. Antonio ushered her into the back seat and she obliged, fuming at her stupidity and lack of acknowledgement for what Pantera had said.

"Guess why I came to Moscow."

"Sightseeing?" she asked hoping to shut him up, Antonio wouldn't be able to stop talking if he started, she knew that for sure. He guffawed loudly, making Alexis wince. The car started moving.

"I thought the first thing you would say was 'to see me'…but I forgot you're not that type of girl…I came to join a group," he said in a low and mysterious voice.

"The Mafia?"

He roared with laughter, "You're as funny as you ever were." Alexis hissed. "Isn't she funny Marco?" he asked the younger boy.

"Yes uncle," was the reply in Italian.

"So what is this group?" she asked bored already.

"Can't tell you."

"Mafia isn't it."

All she received in reply was a grin.

"Well as an old friend of mine has joined the mafia, I'd like some help."

Antonio looked at her warily from the corner of his eye.

Alexis stared back boldly, "three questions…One, what exactly are you doing in Moscow. Two, where the fuck are you taking me, and three, can you get me a S64.9 PR (made it up)?"

Silence.

"Too much?" she asked innocently.

"No…I don't think so," came the wary reply.

"Oh and one more thing…why are you driving in a police car," sniggers irrupted in the car, "don't tell me. You killed the cops and jacked the car…am I right or am I right?"

"Right."

"So…the other questions."

The boy in the front turned around, his eyes the exact green as Antonio's. "Uncle Antonio cannot get gadgets and equipment like that so quickly signorina. He's only been here for a month, and he's only 18…so he doesn't get as many privel…privol…privel…"

"Privileges?"

"Yes…that."

Alexis nodded. The car was silent as it smoothly made its way into what appeared to be a closed junkyard. She raised her eyebrows questioningly, "isn't this such a cliché? Russian mafia in a scrap yard?"

The three males in the car grinned. Parking between two black jeeps, the passengers all got out. Alexis looked around. Here the snow had stopped, yet it was still thick on the ground and in some places it looked like it was covering hills of god only knew what.

'_See you fool…I told you to get away. BUT NOOOOO! Alexis always knows best.'_

'_Shut it.'_

"Come this way…you have to see this." Alexis walked at a safe distance behind the three Italians and wondered at how much of a coincidence this had been. As she stepped into the huge warehouse, the lights flickered on. She gasped. Every make and colour of every car, motorcycle and even speedboat was in the warehouse. Alexis walked between the glistening hoard and breathed a sigh of complete admiration.

"Like it?"

"Love it," she whispered.

"I remembered this place when I saw you, we were going to come later in the evening as there is a meeting…but I just had to show you this place." She looked up at him and noticed he was at least 5 inches taller. She frowned, he grinned. He knew exactly what she was thinking. "Don't worry, you're still growing. You are what now? 16…you have time to grow." She bared her teeth at him and he did the same back at her. She turned back to the car beside her and stroked the sleek black hood.

'_Ehem! Why are you marvelling at that lump of metal?'_

'_It's sooo beautiful.'_

'_GOD IT'S JUST A JAGUAR!'_

'_Just?'_

'_Stupid mortal! Impressed by a pile of scrap.'_

'_You're just jealous I'm giving it attention.'_

'_AM NOT!!!'_

'_Why is it bothering you then?'_

'…'

Alexis smirked. She walked around and then remembered why she had left Skreknell. "Damn it!"

"What is it signorina?" asked Marco.

"I have to be somewhere…NOW!" The boy turned to his uncle, who shrugged his shoulders and made his way t the exit. Alexis followed. He walked to the car, with only Alexis behind him, and got behind the wheel. Alexis frowned and got into the front passenger seat. They drove in silence to where he had first met her and parked the car in the exact same spot. He sat back. Alexis frowned at her lap.

"I thought you would be happy to see me," he whispered quietly, yet it sounded so loud in Alexis's ears, "I expected a warmer greeting. Ever since I came her Marco, my nephew, has been bugging me to find you. Badgering me so that he could meet you. He only got a glimpse of you…remember?"

"Hn."

"You still shut yourself away? You haven't changed a bit…and that's not a good thing. A girl like you should change and develop, mature and grow. Not that you haven't matured," he said as he eyed her up out of the corner of his eye. Alexis straightened her back and turned to him.

"Firstly, I didn't know you told Marco about me, as it was for like what? A week? And secondly, I'm in a tight jam right now and the only way I can get out of this is to keep myself together…I'm in a huge situation right now…I need to get through. I appreciate you showing me the warehouse, but you didn't have to. And tell Mikhail that I like his cars…but I prefer bikes, motorbikes.' With that she left the car, leaving a shocked Antonio behind. She knew that if he knew she knew Mikhail, she might just be able to get him off of her back. She walked along the 'clean' road and reached a crossroad. Reaching into her pocket, she stroked the grooves in the blade. It had been a close one. She knew Antonio was a clingy guy, clingy as in when he got his hands on a girl he wouldn't let go till he thought it was a good time. She scowled, better forget him and get to where you're going fast. She carried on walking, turning through streets and alleyways as if she had been there before. Barely escaping the clutches of a very unusual tramp and finally turning onto a relatively calm neighbourhood. Calm for that type of place. She bent her head against the wind, which was now picking up and walked to the middle of the street and stopped outside a certain block of flats.

'_This it Pantera?'_

'_The one and only…Mistress.'_

'_What have I told you?'_

'_Chill Alexis you shouldn't get so worked up.'_

'_Whatever…fool'_

'_EXCUSE ME! I am not the idiot that nearly got stuck with Antonio…AGAIN!!! Oh by the way you are covered in snow…just thought you'd like to know._

'…'

'_Fine IGNORE me!'_

Alexis grinned and stepped into the building. Taking the stairs two at a time, she reached the fifth floor quickly. She looked around, now which number was it?

'_It's that one you fool,' _hissed Pantera in the back of her mind.

'_Touché.'_

'_Very!_' he retorted.

Alexis composed herself and stuck her hand out. This was it. She pressed the button.

**End Flashback.**

"OI!" something hit Alexis in the head, "you've been daydreaming for the past ten minutes. YOU BARELY BLINKED TWICE!" Alexis tore her eyes off of the TV. She nodded her head in its direction, as if to say I was watching that.

"Don't lie to me Alexis, unless you've had severe brain damage or a personality swap with a retard you wouldn't be watching this," he said. Jabbing his finger at the screen. "For god's sake Alexis! It's a classic romance movie…black and white." Alexis blanched. "Exactly, so what were you daydreaming about? Them?"

"…"

"I take that as a no," Dally sat in silence, his eyes never leaving her face. She returned the look with an icy one and he frowned. They sat in silence, Dally watching her every move and Alexis calm under his scrutiny. Finally, Dally sat upright, his eyes still resting on Alexis.

"Why did you come?"

Alexis let her head fall over the armrest behind her, pushing her hair back till it flowed onto the ground. "I need something." She turned her head slightly, her eyes locking with his.

"And that thing is?"

"An S64.9 PR. Do you have one?"

"I might, but…I feel bad saying this…I'm not exactly that well off right now…so, you'll have to you'll have to…" he trailed off as he turned his face away from her.

"I'll pay triple the price, but you'll have to tell me exactly how to use it."

"I might have one in my room, I'll go see…you don't have to pay triple…"

"I don't have to but I want to and I can," she said as her attention returned to the TV as she began, once again, to flick between the channels.

"I'll go and see if I have it."

"Yeah," she whispered, "you do that."

-: -: -: -: -

It was now 8 o'clock and Alexis and Dalmotov had been in his 'workroom', which was in fact a walk in wardrobe in his bedroom, for the past 8 hours. Dalmotov had taught her everything he knew about the device and had even found one after hours of searching. She had paid him, and they were now sitting on a bench barely inches away from each other. Dalmotov sat opposite her, while she examined the S64.9 PR in her hands. She looked up.

"On the power supply?"

"Yes, the one being used by the cameras, pressure pads, etc. It's usually a different one to the power supply of the building."

"You said it would definitely block out signals to and from the cameras and stuff?"

"Yes…every one of them."

"What if there are cameras near the power supply?"

"Turn out the lights or simply cut off the electricity…but you'll have to rig this up in less than a minute before the emergency supply is turned on."

"Hn."

Dalmotov rolled his eyes. They sat in silence, Alexis thinking of how she would do this without attracting attention and Dalmotov thinking about what she was intending to do.

Then, "hey Alexis, I'm gonna take a shower…can you make some dinner?" he asked as he got off of the bench and walked out of his 'workroom'.

Alexis glared at his back, "do I look like the maid to you?"

Dalmotov stopped in the doorway of his bedroom and turned around. He looked Alexis up and down as she was now standing in the centre of his bedroom. "Actually you do."

Alexis's eyes widened slightly, had he just said that to _her_? She narrowed her eyes at him as he lent against the doorframe. He smirked at her, "you do know that I was joking don't you?"

"…"

"I only said that as a joke…I really missed your food. I did, honestly. Please can you cook something?" he asked making his eyes seem all sad.

"…"

"I'll be good," he said as he looked at her with puppy dog eyes. Alexis rolled her eyes at him and stormed past him and into the kitchen.

"YES! Thank you to whoever is up there…if there's anyone up there. Me and my stomach owe you one," she heard him say as he went into his bathroom.

Alexis grumbled and swore under her breath as she pulled out the ingredients to make some Spaghetti Bolognese. "It's not like I'm a mastermind chef. I always ruin anything I bake (like me…it's either burnt and if its a cake…then its undercooked. That means the middle is sloppy and like a liquid…the top still somehow manages to get burnt –sniff-sniff- I CAN'T BAKE!!!) I can only make simple things…" she continued to grumble to herself as she made the spaghetti and laid the table. She finally sat down and waited for Dalmotov, who came rushing in moments later in nothing but a pair of shorts.

"Hmmmm, this smells good," he said as he sat down and began filling his plate.

"Two things, one it's December and you're wearing a pair of shorts? And two…don't eat like that!"

"One…I always wear shorts when I come out the shower…you shouldn't have forgotten that in just 11 months. And two, I CAN EAT THE WAY I LIKE!"

"Does like a pig count?"

"…"

Alexis bared her teeth at him and started to eat in silence. However, Dalmotov started talking about something and Alexis had her mind on other things yet allowed a few words to filter through her mind every now and then.

"…Psycho…tramp…tried to mug me the other night…right…wiped the smirk off his face…met this girl…HOT…went wild…at party…drank vodka…tramp…same one…turned up late…slept with her…left next morning…never seen him since." Alexis raised a single eyebrow, 'coz boy was she confused?

'_Alexis it is considered good manners to actually listen to people.'_

"**Alexis."**

'_Why would that bother you Pantera?'_

"**Alexis?"**

'_It wouldn't. It's just funny…you never appreciated what he had to say…it would have been better if you had been in a LONG TERM relationship with him instead of those one-week things you used to do… I'd be surprised if you didn't end up dating one of the blitzkrieg boys for a week, that is when they finally find out about your harebrained BECOME A PRO BEYBLADER QUICK scheme…so you might as well show some respect to Dally and listen to him.'_

"**Alexis?"**

'_I don't need you to tell me what to do! And I definitely don't need your opinion on my relationships…IT'S MY LIFE AFTER ALL!'_

"**ALEXIS!!!"**

"**WHAAAAT?"**

"Want to watch a movie…in the living room?" asked Dally as if he had just spent the last five minutes in a normal conversation with her and not screaming for her to listen to him.

"Hn," was all she said as she got up and followed him out of the kitchen.

-: -: -: -: -: -

"Is he here yet?"

"No."

"Is he here now?"

"No."

"Has he arrived?"

"No."

"Did he get back?"

"NO! IVAN HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU ALEXIS HAS NOOOOT RETURNED!"

Ivan glared at his teammate. "Just checking," he grumbled.

"Well stop it then!"

"Chill Bryan," said Spencer, who was sitting at the table at the end of the living room and studying Seaborg. "He'll be back soon."

At that moment a frustrated Tala stormed into the room, "has he got back yet?"

"NO!" yelled Bryan.

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO SHOUT!" yelled Tala back at him. Spencer shook his head as the two bickered away at each other. "Are we going to eat?" he asked, just to break up the fight.

"We're going out for dinner," stated Tala as he left the room.

"WOOT!" yelled Ivan and Bryan as they scrambled after him. Spencer grimaced to himself when he heard Ivan and Bryan break out into another of their arguments about which restaurant they were going to. If he hated anything, it would be eating at a restaurant while Bryan was in a bad mood, and it was obvious he was in one now. Spencer pulled out a small notebook from his back pocket. He opened it and began flicking through the pages. On the first one there was a strand of red hair and a photo of Tala that Spencer had taken without his captain knowing. Beside the photo and hair there was small table that Spencer had filled in.

Name:

Date of Birth:

Hair colour:

Eye Colour:

Status in the team:

Bitbeast Name:

Bitbeast Speciality:

And on the next page the same table was on it and a small strand of Bryan's hair and a photo of him, were stuck to it. On the next it was Ivan and after that Kai. The most recently updated page was Alexis's. Two strands of hair were stuck to it in the same way Spencer had done Kai's, one colour beside the other. And a photo of Alexis had been taken and stuck beside it. He frowned, as he did every time he looked at it. Unlike the others Alexis had looked up at the lens at the last moment so that the photo had been taken with Alexis staring right out of it. "Where are you kitty-boy?" he whispered as he stuffed the notebook back into his pocket and left the room.

-: -: -: -: -: -

Alexis sat beside Dalmotov on the couch and watched the screen of the TV. It was something about a haunted mansion…yet she wasn't concentrating enough. Her mind was focused on what she would do when she got home.

"Hey Alexis," said Dally, breaking her out of her world, "are you ever going to come back?"

"Back?" she said as if she didn't understand what he was saying.

"You know what I mean, are you ever going to come back to the team."

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't want to…and it's not like they'd want me back."

"We do. We don't even care if you're not back on the team, just come back to us."

"You keep saying 'back onto the team' as if I was on it before. If you don't remember, I had never been on your team. It had always been the RBT and Alexis on the side. I was never classified as part of the team." She sat straighter, turning her head to face him. This was going to be a long conversation.

"Alexis…you do know that not everyone wanted you off of the team, don't you?"

"You do know that I just told you I was never on the team in the first place."

Dalmotov waved his hand as if that was nothing, "we want you back Alexis. You did a lot for us; we need you to stick us back together. I mean I know you were never there as part of the group, you just sat with one of us at a time…but since you've left nothing's been the same." Alexis watched him as he continued explaining. "When Katya told you that you had to leave, not one of us agreed with her-"

"Well then why didn't you tell me to stay…why didn't you tell her to shut up?"

Dalmotov was silent.

"See what I always meant? She had you all wrapped around her little finger and you didn't know it. Even Misha and Antonov obeyed her every command and they were supposed to be like your parents, they were supposed to be the teachers and the trainers…not her."

"Look, I know that what she did wasn't very nice-"

"Wasn't very nice? She shoved me away when I actually needed people for the first time. When you first found me…that had been just after Veru died, I wasn't in the same state as I had been when…when…when Tai…" she looked away. This was not good.

"When Tai moved on," whispered Dally. Alexis wasn't the only one that missed the small girl. Although they hadn't been as close to Tai as Alexis had been, the team had felt a huge gap when she had died.

"Yeah…" she whispered, "that…you remember I told you Veru had found me when I was around 2 and a half?" he nodded, "well she had died in front of me and I was chased away by the people who I was left in the care of and after all that…Tai…dying…hit home much harder." Alexis looked up into Dalmotov's eyes, her face like a mask not revealing a thing. He fidgeted inside; his eyes were locked on hers. He felt odd, this was wrong. People were supposed to cry, scream and shout, not tie down their feelings.

"Alexis, relax…let it show." All he got in return was a raised eyebrow.

"Let what show?"

"Your feelings, you can't lock them away. It's bad for you. You're killing yourself like that. You may not show it but I know you…and the grief inside you must be eating away at you. You need to let it out every once in a while…what do you think Tai would say?" he whispered the last part. Not daring to take a breath as he examined her face. There! He had seen it, a flicker. Just one twitch when he had said that sentence. "It's not good to shut yourself away Alexis. It could be bad for your health."

Deep inside Alexis's inner self frowned, that wasn't the first time she had heard that today.

_-You still shut yourself away? You haven't changed a bit…and that's not a good thing. A girl like you should change and develop, mature and grow-_ it hadn't been the same but both boys had warned her not to do this. Come to think of it everyone she had ever known had warned her against keeping herself closed away. She nodded and noted the look of relief that spread across Dally's face. Alexis turned back to the TV, her mind blanked as her eyes misted over.

'_She's in her own world now Dally,'_ Bold, his bitbeast, told him.

An hour later, Alexis came out of her reverie; she had sunk so deep into the past. She felt cold at the memories that had drifted in and out of her mind, cold, guilty and stupid.

"I miss her," she whispered.

"We all do."

"It was my fault…"

"NO IT WAS NOT!" he said his voice loud and commanding. "DON'T EVEN THINK OF BLAMING YOURSELF ALEXIS! IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!"

She winced. "Yes it was…I should have known she would catch a cold," she whispered.

"I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!" she shouted, making him jump. Alexis turned so that she was looking him straight in the eye. "It was MID FUCKING MARCH! AND I DECIDE TO TAKE HER TO A LAKE? WHAT WAS I THINKING? I KILLED HER!"

"You didn't know," he whispered as he pulled her close. He was relieved that she was letting it out now, although 11 months of pent up feelings would definitely be a lot.

"I KNEW SHE COULD CATCH A COLD! SHE HAD WEAK IMMUNITY!"

He held her closer, wrapping his arms tighter around her. He could feel her breathing deeply and knew what would happen next, the struggle. But to his surprise Alexis didn't hit out or cry.

'_Will she cry, Bold?'_

'_No, Master, she has barriers that she will never be able to lose. These will prevent her from allowing her emotions to escape, she will never cry.'_

'_Never?'_

'_That is what I just told you, never.'_

'_Oh, I see.'_

Dally thought back to all the occasions where he had expected every other teenager to cry, every other teenager excluding Alexis. He had been beside her when Tai had died. Everyone had been beside the bed. Not a single tear. He had been beside her at the funeral…still; there hadn't been a tear. All the people that had been there had seen was a pale neko-jin. One that seemed to be giving up, yet not one tear had escaped her golden eyes.

"SHE'S GONE!" she shouted.

"No she hasn't, she's with you…in your heart," he said and straight away beat himself for it. Alexis would never listen to something like that. It even sounded awful to him. Dalmotov got up; he had had enough of this. He made his way out of the room, but was back carrying a small crate under one arm and two glasses in his other hand.

"You still drink?" he asked. She nodded. He sat beside her again, letting her fall back so that her head was in his lap. She looked up at him.

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

Alexis opened the crate and pulled out two bottles. Dalmotov frowned; he knew what was coming next. She twisted the cap and placed it on the coffee table beside her. Slowly, she brought the bottle to her lips and drank from it. At first it was small sips, but then it was long, hard gulps that she seemed to throw back into her throat. Dalmotov put his hand firmly on the bottom of the bottle as if to say: enough. But she tugged it away and finished the bottle. With a sigh she fell back onto his lap.

"That was good," she whispered, her eyes now shut. "I want some more," she said as she cracked an eye open.

"If I give you some more, I won't be able to let you leave tonight…it could be dangerous."

"I won't get drunk."

"You will, you won't be able to fight it off this time Alexis. Not like always. You're in a different state now."

"Whatever," she whispered as she slipped her hand into the crate. "They can wait till tomorrow morning."

'_It won't kill the boys if I slept over here.'_

'_They'll be getting worried Alexis,' _whispered Pantera to her.

'_Doubt it.'_

'_Mark my words. You are their teammate. They will definitely be worried.'_

'_Oh just shut up!'_

'_You're drunk!'_

'_Am not!'_

'…_I'm going to keep quiet. Just don't do anything stupid.'_

'…'

-: -: -: -: -: -

Boris sat at his desk, watching the small screen that had been placed before him. He followed the silhouettes of the blitzkrieg boys, who had been leaving the house when this clip had been recorded. He had been slightly disturbed recently, he was sure that Alexis had sneaked glances straight at a few of the cameras. And what about those tracking devices? They weren't on the team's clothes. Alexis had left the house and he couldn't trace the neko-jin as the tracking devices told Boris and his small team of helpers that Alexis was currently in the Garage. That had been proved incorrect, as a certain someone had informed him that they had seen the neko-jin leave the house.

Boris glared as he watched the four figures of the blitzkrieg boys fade into the snow as they walked away from the house. Even their tracking devices had been removed.

"Gregorovich!"

"Yes sir?"

"I want you to make a file and find out every single scrap of information on the boys. You will keep some of your people watching them 24 hours a day, they can note down any details they may obtain, be it through the cameras or the microphones…understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Go."

The man turned and left. Boris sat back in his chair, staring at a still frame of the entire team as they sat in the living room the night before.

"I will find out everything about you Alexis…mark my words…I will get every scrap of information and learn you inside out, the way I did the others. No one in my team will evade me, because **_I_** am Boris Balkov!"

-: -: -: -: -: -

_I know it's the worst chapter ever…and I know you're probably all hating me for this. Oh and before you all kill me, Alexis is not going to end up with Dalmotov…that would be just sad. I was thinking along the lines of Alexis and Tala or it could be Alexis and Kai or even Alexis and Ray. I know I'm weird…but did you know I've already figured out how I'll end this thing and I don't even know what'll go in the middle. But believe me it'll get better. I already know what I'm going to put for the next few chapters and believe me it's good. I think. Anyhow… I'll try and update soon. Oh and for god's sake REVIEW!!!_

_From your favourite author of all time (that's so not possible)_

_The amazing…_

_XxxMidNighT_


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 

BAM.

'_Growl.'_ Alexis opened her right eye just a crack. She growled again, snapping it shut.

"Too Much Sunlight!" she screamed. A groan came from her right. She felt confused. _Where was she? What was going on? Why wasn't she able to wake up properly? What was the time? Why did her leg hurt? And what the heck was that throbbing in her temples?_

Alexis slowly opened her eyes in the shade of her hand, and took in her surroundings. She knew where she was; in Dally's front room. She took her hand away and squinted in the light from the window. She had half fallen off of the couch, where half her body was stuck under Dally.

"Stupid boy pushed me off the couch!" she hissed. She was fuming. _How did they end up on the couch? And why was she still wearing her boots?_ No wonder her leg was killing her, she was wearing knee high leather boots, her leg was also raised high up as it was still on the couch _and_ under Dalmotov's weight. She tugged to no avail.

'_Wake up fully first then try and move around properly,'_ hissed Pantera harshly.

'_Huh?'_

'_Huh? Is that all you can say? Where did Miss Pure Logic go? Actually I take that back, you were never logical…always rash.'_

'_Why are you so bitchy today Pantera?'_ asked Alexis, her head resting on her arms her eyes shut against the light.

'_Gah!'_ was her reply.

Alexis groaned, rubbing her temples.

'_If you had been like every other teenager…human in fact, you wouldn't be awake right now. You're supposed to be hung over, knocked out, half dead, not wide-awake. Not that you're wide awake,_' he muttered the last part from the back of her mind.

Alexis's eyes shot open. She would wake up and she would wake up now! She pulled her leg out from under Dally. Jumping up, she leapt between the discarded bottles and cans that littered the floor. _'How much did I drink,'_ she asked herself not expecting Pantera to answer her.

'_5 of those bottles of Vodka and a whole six pack…not adding what you sneaked from Dalmotov's bottles and glasses.'_ Just at the thought of how much she had drunk Alexis swooned. She had drunk 5 whole bottles of Vodka? _What was wrong with her? _She quickly washed and brushed her hair, popping some spaghetti left over from the night before into her mouth. She soon regretted it, as she had to rush into the bathroom, where her stomach decided to empty itself into the basin. She grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. Her day was definitely not going so well. She trudged back into the living room, a black cloud hanging over her.

"DALLY!"

"Huh? Wha- what's going on?" he yelped groggily. His eyes were still glued shut.

"It's me Alexis…I'm going now okay?"

"Hm? Yeah whatever."

Alexis glowered at his already sleeping form. She scoured the room for a pen, finally finding one down the back of the couch. She pulled off a label from one of the bottles and wrote on it:

'Hey Dally. I had to go. Hope your hangover isn't so bad. Will see you soon. XXX ALEXIS' 

She left it on the coffee table, where she knew he would find it. Walking around the flat, she picked up her belongings and put them all into her coat pockets. Finally, she made her way back to the living room where she pinched the sleeping Russian and left the building.

Standing at the front door to the block of flats, Alexis took in her surroundings. It seemed to be around 7 o'clock. The sun was up, but clouds hid it. The snow was now above her angles. She walked through it in the most dignified way as possible. She calculated in her mind how long it would take her to get to Skreknell. She smirked at the thought of Tala screaming at her the way he did to Bryan. Thinking of the boys made her smile. She didn't focus much on her surroundings. One part of her mind directed her through the familiar neighbourhood; the other dwelled on random things that passed through her mind. She heard Pantera growl warningly. Pulling herself out of her reverie, she noticed that she had walked into a blocked alleyway. A stonewall had been placed roughly halfway down. To Alexis, it looked about roughly nine foot high. One thing she was sure of was that there was A LOT of barbed wire over the top. This was not good. She turned around and realised what Pantera had warned her against. A dozen Russian men, ranging from Alexis's age to 25 stood at the opening. She frowned. Why hadn't she realised this so soon?

'_You're drunk Alexis…don't fight them. You could misjudge it all.'_

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" asked one of Alexis's stalkers. By the looks of it he was the leader. Alexis smiled, hiding the fury at the way he spoke at her.

"What are you doing out so early?" he asked.

"Was going to ask you the same question," she whispered seductively.

He grinned, "it's only 7:30, a girl like you should be at home, safe with her parents. Not only that…this area is dangerous for pretty girls like you." He had sauntered all the way up to her while he was talking, now he was barely millimetres away. The Alexis inside herself hissed at his audacity, she gave him a sweet look.

"Oh…I haven't been around here for quite a while. It's changed a lot." She looked around and focused her gaze onto the wall.

"That's to keep the bad men out," he whispered. "And some other bad men in." He stepped closer to her, his hand on her shoulder. Alexis looked at it, her stomach twisting inside.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Gregori," whispered a boy from the back of the group. Alexis pricked up her ears, she recognised that voice, but who was it?

"Why shouldn't I?"

Alexis placed her hand on his chest and pushed slightly. He resisted and pushed Alexis back till they reached the wall. He looked down his nose at her with his dark eyes. Alexis glowered back.

"Don't touch me," she hissed. Finally, she allowed her inner self to take over. She took hold of his wrists and squeezed, her hands clamping down like vices. She wrenched his hands off of her and thrust him forward. He stumbled and fell onto his back.

"Next time you try and corner a girl in an alleyway, make sure she's weak." She gripped his collar and lifted him off of the ground. Gregori's eyes widened with surprise under his black bangs. She set him on his feet.

"I thought I recognised your voice Pasha. Long time no see," she said as she sauntered over to a boy to the left. He smiled weakly and stroked his arm. She smirked at him and gestured to his arm. "Still hurts?"

"Yes." His eyes widened warningly, but Alexis was well prepared, spinning around, she knocked her fist into Gregori's jaw. He staggered back, but lunged at her again. She ducked and swung an uppercut at him. Her eyes gleamed. He growled and spat at her. Alexis wiped the spittle off of her face. She gave him the finger as she jumped up onto a huge dustbin.

"Get her!" yelled Gregori.

The men all ran at her, all but Pasha who stood back.

Alexis pulled out her switchblade, slashing and cutting at anyone who came close to her. She was grabbed from behind. Twisting around, she kneed the guy holding her. He crumpled. Alexis shoved one of them into three others, they all toppled over like dominos. Her head was throbbing, but she ignored it. Her heart pumped faster as she ducked and swerved, punched and kicked. Finally, she stood back to survey her work. All the men, excluding Pasha lay slumped on the ground. Some cradling bleeding arms and wrists, while others sported bruised lips and broken noses. Alexis smiled. Boy was she content. She walked away, leaving the groaning men behind her, at the turning, she spun back on her heal and smiled sweetly down at Gregori. She knew who they were and to get them thinking next time they wanted to corner a girl, she said: "Tell Mikhail that his men are loosing their touch. Don't look at me like that…we used to be neighbours. He'll remember me. Tell him that Alexis says hi and that we should meet up sometime." She frowned down at the men, "on one condition, that you sissies don't join us." She spun around leaving the men fuming and yelling obscenities after her.

'_Had a nice good morning?'_ asked a disgruntled Pantera.

'_Yep.'_

'_Well I hope you know what you're going to do when you see the boys.'_

'_I know exactly what I'm going to do.'_

'_Pray tell what would that be?'_

'…'

'_You don't know do you.'_

'_It'll come on the spur of the moment,'_ she muttered. She wasn't sure how to explain this, but she'll get out of it. Looking down at herself, she realised that she had some blood spattered on her trench coat. She took out a packet of tissues from her pocket and wiped it off of the leather, to her dismay, the coat had taken on a brownish colour from where the blood had spattered her. She knew the boys' quick eyes would easily find it, she prayed they wouldn't examine her too closely.

An ear splitting, screech seemed to come out of one of Alexis's pockets. She froze, what was that insistent sound. The high pitch ringing was killing her ears, and her head seemed to throb faster. She pocked her finger into her pocket, withdrawing it quickly. She opened it, just enough to look inside it. Nestled between a comb and a bundle of notes, was a mobile. She frowned, since when had she had a mobile? She gingerly picked it up and looked at the coloured screen. It was black with white and orange strips across its sides. Recognising whose it was, she let out a string of obscene words.

'_Tala!'_

'_My name is Pantera, not Tala.'_

'_I meant that this is his phone. I guess he's trying to keep an eye on me.'_

'_Seems like an ear, not an eye to me…Well pick it up.'_

Alexis looked again at the screen; on it there was a picture of a frowning Bryan.

'_The green button Alexis.'_

She pressed it, "WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU? DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE'VE BEEN?" came Tala's voice. "I'VE CALLED THIS NUMBER LIKE 20 TIMES LAST NIGHT AND TWICE THIS MORNING!"

Alexis drew back from the phone. "I didn't think you'd be that worried about my welfare," she said a hint of exasperation in her voice.

"I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT YOU, I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF TRAINING MY TEAM IS HAVING TO MISS. IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE TEAM THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL TURN UP WHEN I, THE CAPTAIN, CALL YOU!"

Alexis glared at the phone in her hand. Then a second voice came from the speaker, "Will You Get Your Ass Round Here! Ivan Tried To Poison Us This Morning! Not Give Us Breakfast!"

"OI!" came Ivan's reply to Bryan.

"Ivan attempted to make breakfast," explained Tala in a calm voice, as if he hadn't just been screaming his lungs out at her. "Spencer cut his hand on some glass last night, and no one else can cook a proper breakfast." Alexis walked on towards the park where she had left her clothes.

"Give me the phone," came Spencer's voice. She heard a static sound as the phone was passed from hand to hand. "Where have you been?" asked Spencer simply.

"Out."

"I know that much, but where?"

"With a friend," Alexis felt bad. Spencer was the one who always seemed to worry about the team.

"Who?"

"Someone I used to know."

"YOUR EX GIRLFRIEND?" came Bryan's voice from the background.

"No. It was a guy."

"YOU'RE GAY?"

"No," she said again. Her head was killing her; her eyes seemed hot and sore. And to top it all up Bryan had to shout down the phone. She heard a smacking sound, and was sure that either Spencer or Tala had hit Bryan on the head.

"Be back soon," came Spencer's voice again.

"Yeah, I'm already half way home."

"Good. Bye," was all he said before he shut the phone.

"Bye."

-: -: -: -: -

Alexis walked into the park, her eyes scanning the spaces between the trees. She had enough experience to know that bad things lurked behind trees and large rocks. Following her own tracks and smell, she made her way to the marked tree.

'_Is there anyone around Pantera?'_

'…'

'_Pantera?'_

'…'

'_PANTERA?' _thought Alexis as she pulled out her beyblade. She glowered down at the empty bitchip._ 'How the fuck does he do that? Everyone else's bitbeast stays in his or her bitchip. But no, mine has to wander around all over the place.'_ She rubbed her thumb across the design for the background of the bitchip, yin and yang, and looked at the roots of the tree she stood in front of. Stuffing Pantera in her pocket, she began stripping down until she reached her underwear.

"Crack!"

**:-) **

**---**

Sorry about that…ANYWAY!

If anyone sends me messages, I'm sorry I can't read them as my email account is dead so I have no way to being alerted about anything. If you have any suggestions for the story, you could write it in a review. I'm dying for some funny parts. I don't want it all to be serious. I'd appreciate any comments you have. I'm also deciding on whether or not I should start an Avatar: The last airbender fanfic. If you would like me to write one, I'd really appreciate some encouragement. Oh and something else I might have to change a few characters and make them slightly OOC so that it fits. I will be writing about Kai and the bladebreakers, it's just that I'm never able to write about a whole load of characters. I mean I just made my life worse by adding in a whole group of new people. BUT, it'll be one of the best stories ever! –I hope-

Yours truly,

**XxxMidNighT**


	12. Profile of some new characters

Characters and their Bitbeasts 

**Name:**

Alexis

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

16

**Gender:**

Female

**Hair colour:**

Black at the top and Red at the bottom

**Eye colour:**

GOLD (remember this)

**Height:**

170cm 5 ft 8…I think

**Usual clothes:**

Full sleeve top, jeans, black leather trench coat, DMs and a bandana

**Team:**

Blitzkrieg Boys

**Bitbeast:**

Pantera

I have a picture of Alexis that I drew; it's not that good but it gives you an idea of what she's supposed to look like.

**Name:**

Pantera

**Belongs to:**

Alexis

**Gender:**

Male

**Looks like:**

Panther with black fur that has red markings on the front paws and blue

On the back paws. Plus, he has GREEN eyes (that's important)

**What it can do:**

You'll find out

I'm currently drawing him…its really difficult drawing animals.

Now everyone knows who the Blitzkrieg boys are, so I'm not going to bother describing them.

You've just met Dally (Dalmotov), so I'll do him and the rest of his people. Oh, btw I'm also drawing his picture. Personally I think its pretty good.

**Name:**

Dalmotov

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

17

**Gender:**

Male

**Hair colour:**

Brown

**Eye colour:**

Brown

**Height:**

5 ft 10

**Usual clothes:**

Cream coloured fur coat, white fleece, black jeans, black studded

Belt and a pair of black boots.

**Team:**

RBT

**Bitbeast:**

Bold (bear)

**Name:**

Bold

**Belongs to:**

Dalmotov

**Gender:**

Male

**Looks like:**

He's a black and brown bear that's covered in silver armour.

**What it can do:**

It has huge paws that break whatever they hit. Can also cause

Earthquakes

**Name:**

Katya

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

17

**Gender:**

Female

**Hair colour:**

Blond

**Eye colour:**

Blue

**Height:**

5 ft 7

**Usual clothes:**

White full sleeved fleece, black mini skirt and black boots

**Team:**

RBT (and is the captain)

**Bitbeast:**

Polar (polar bear)

**Name:**

Polar

**Belongs to:**

Katya

**Gender:**

Female

**Looks like:**

A polar bear wearing white helmet and breast plates. She has blue eyes and

Has a silver star on her back

**What it can do:**

Can make waves of white light that are a lot like force fields. This

Can knock out the opponent and can cause electric disturbances.

**Name:**

Tina

**Nationality:**

Italian

**Age:**

10

**Gender:**

Female

**Hair colour:**

Dirty blond

**Eye colour:**

Brown

**Height:**

140cm…that is?

**Usual clothes:**

Blue jeans, Blue boots, Blue fleece jacket with white top.

**Team:**

RBT (baby of the team)

**Bitbeast:**

Ice (angel)

**Name:**

Ice

**Belongs to:**

Tina

**Gender:**

Female

**Looks like:**

Blue angel (blue wings, hair eyes, etc.), wields a weapon that's like a long

Pole with a crystal on the top.

**What it can do:**

If the pole touches anything, it encases the object in Ice. It's also

Used like a spear, as the crystal on the top is REALLY pointy.

**Name:**

Misha

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

About 50

**Gender:**

Female

**Hair colour:**

Plum/Purple

**Eye colour:**

Brown

**Height:**

5 ft 5

**Usual clothes:**

Purple Dress, with black cloak and purple boots

**Team:**

RBT (trainer/teacher/adopted mother, basically she found them)

**Bitbeast:**

None

**Name:**

Antonov

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

Late 50s

**Gender:**

Male

**Hair colour:**

Black

**Eye colour:**

Blue

**Height:**

5 ft 8

**Usual clothes:**

Black trousers, White jumper (usually woollen), black cloak and black boots

**Team:**

RBT (trainer/teacher/adopted mother, basically she found them)

**Bitbeast:**

Maxim (dinosaur)

**Name:**

Maxim

**Belongs to:**

Antonov

**Gender:**

Male

**Looks like:**

A huge, black T-Rex.

**What it can do:**

Controls sound. Uses different pitches to attack an opponent and its owner

Also uses its teeth to bite them in half (bitbeast, not owner).

**Name:**

Alex

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

18

**Gender:**

Male

**Hair colour:**

Red

**Eye colour:**

Green

**Height:**

5 ft 11

**Usual clothes:**

Jeans and full sleeve top with boots

**Team:**

RBT

**Bitbeast:**

Karma (Monkey)

**Name:**

Karma

**Belongs to:**

Alex

**Gender:**

Male

**Looks like:**

A red monkey with golden paws.

**What it can do:**

Can turn into a monkey made out of fire. Throws balls of fire and can breath

Fire.

**Name:**

Ian (no it's not Ivan, some other dude)

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

19

**Gender:**

Male

**Hair colour:**

Blue

**Eye colour:**

Blue

**Height:**

6 ft

**Usual clothes:**

Black jeans, White top, Black Boots and Black jacket.

**Team:**

RBT

**Bitbeast:**

Royale (Cat)

**Name:**

Royale

**Belongs to:**

Ian

**Gender:**

Male

**Looks like:**

Blue-black Persian, has silver paws and eyes and wears a silver crown

**What it can do:**

Can make tidal waves and huge tsunamis (a lot like Draciel but on a weaker

Level).

**Name:**

Gustafson

**Nationality:**

German

**Age:**

15

**Gender:**

Male

**Hair colour:**

Blond

**Eye colour:**

Green/Blue

**Height:**

6 ft 1

**Usual clothes:**

All dark purple

**Team:**

RBT

**Bitbeast:**

Hund (dog)

**Name:**

Hund

**Belongs to:**

Gustafson

**Gender:**

Male

**Looks like:**

A huge golden dog with black eyes and black paws.

**What it can do:**

Moves so fast so all you can see is a golden streak (that includes the bey-

Blade). As he moves so fast his main strength is surprise.

**Name:**

Maria

**Nationality:**

Russian

**Age:**

14 (yes, she's the one that wanted to be an airhostess)

**Gender:**

Female

**Hair colour:**

Green

**Eye colour:**

Green

**Height:**

165cm

**Usual clothes:**

Black miniskirt, pale green shirt, black boots that are topped with pale green

Fur. A black jacket and a green handbag, beyblade is green too.

**Team:**

RBT

**Bitbeast:**

Bunny (duh! A rabbit)

**Name:**

Bunny

**Belongs to:**

Maria

**Gender:**

Female

**Looks like:**

This is one mean bunny, has green fur and black eyes. Just coz it is a rabbit,

That doesn't mean it's small and cuddly. No! This rabbit is HUGE, and so is

The beyblade it's in. It's about double the size of Max's blade.

**What it can do:**

When it hops (the beyblade hops like Kenny's one in G-Rev) it

Can cause MAHUSIVE earthquakes. SO! It's not like Kenny's.


	13. Chapter 11

_**HEY BUMS!**_

**_I know I said I'd put this up on Christmas day…but I didn't. So sue me. Actually don't since I'm broke. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I know my writing has been going down the drain, but you can't blame me for everything, what with all the pressure of my mock GCSE Exams, coursework and my Nan dying and my WEIRD mood swings…no wonder my mum doesn't feel like talking to me. It's so unfair, my brother and my sister go with her on holiday from Sunday 10th December and they won't be coming back till 8th January and my mum and me have only spoken on the phone twice. Woops just realised I've been ranting on for nothing. ) Heh oh well R&R to make me happy_**

_**Peaceout**_

_**XxxMidNighT**_

**Chapter 11**

…"Crack!"

Alexis clawed at the tree as she jumped high into its branches. She peered between the leaves and saw the warden come into the clearing, gun raised and at the ready.

"Come out; come out, wherever you are. I know you're here. You're not so clever this time; you've forgotten to hide our clothes."

Alexis's inner self swore at her stupidity. How did she not think of that?

'_YOU ARE DRUNK FOR THE MILLIONTH FUCKING TIME!'_

'_Chill Pantera, I kind of get it. No need to shout!'_

"You know," said the warden from below, "I can wait for as long as I like. So you might as well show yourself." he looked up between the branches as Alexis shrunk back between the leaves. "I promise I won't shoot. I promise."

Alexis looked down at the man, he was in his mid fifties and his age was definitely catching up with him. Sizing him up, she finally decided to go down. She held onto the tree trunk and slipped down, landing right in front of the man. He carefully examined her, noticing her feline features and well toned muscles.

"So it's you that has deformed my tree," he stated blandly while keeping an eye on her hands, lest she tried something.

"Sorry," muttered Alexis.

"Hm."

Alexis bent down and continued dressing, ignoring the fact that the man had his gun trained on the left hand side of her chest. When she was finally dressed, she stood up to her full height and stared at the man expectantly. He wavered slightly as he said, "What is your name and what are you doing in my wildlife park?"

"Alexis and changing my clothes…is that it?"

"Yes, you may go. But don't ever do this again." She nodded and turned away, backpack hanging off one shoulder.

'_You nitwit! Your mother would be ashamed of you! Call yourself a neko-jin?'_

'Alexis froze, _'what about my mother? You knew her?'_

'_Just a figure of speech silly,'_ muttered Pantera. Alexis frowned and continued walking out of the wildlife park.

Walking back through the streets, she began to feel very woozy and the throbbing in her temples increased. Slowly, her speed decreased. Her feet felt as if they were blocks of ice, they were so heavy.

"Pantera?" she gasped as she fell forward. Her hand reaching out and grabbing onto the first thing that it felt. A sharp pain pierced through the soft flesh of her hand. Alexis growled and hissed as the pain shot up and down her right arm. Her fingers had grabbed onto a shop windowsill; however, Alexis hadn't noticed the vandalised shop front and the broken glass. Gasping in pain as the blood poured from her hand.

"Alexis calm down and hold your hand up above your head." Alexis squinted through the curtains of pain, her eyes making out a large burly figure.

"Spencer?" the green clad boy didn't say a word as he ripped a strip of cloth off of his t-shirt and wrapped it around her hand. He grabbed her left hand and pulled her up, "careful there buddy. We don't want you putting too much pressure on your injured hand." He picked up a bag in one hand and turned, Alexis following him.

They reached Skreknell in less than 15 minutes. The white painted walls made the house stand out from between the greys and browns of the houses around it. Alexis squinted as the light shined off of the paint and windows and into her eyes.

"Seems like you've been drinking quite a bit, eh Alexis?" asked Spencer as he walked up the steps. He turned the key in the lock, and stepped to the side to allow her to pass by him. "You should have been more careful, now there's two of us with injured palms. Seems odd that we both got hurt in similar ways doesn't it?"

Alexis nodded and stumbled up the stairs, to be greeted by a rather frustrated Tala. "What took you so long?" he scolded.

"Chill Tala. He hurt his hand just now," Spencer said as he pointed towards Alexis.

"It's nothing," muttered Alexis as she walked into her and Tala's room. Tala followed her into the bathroom, his eyes noting the shred of cloth and dry blood. Alexis washed her hand and stifled a yawn as she examined the visible half of her face in the mirror.

"We were worried," muttered Ivan from the door. She spun around and looked down at him, she quickly stopped herself from patting him on the head.

"I thought I was going to die after the poison Ivan fed us this morn…" Bryan faltered as his gaze landed on her hand. "NOT YOU TOO!"

Alexis let out a short burst of laughter, surprising the boys, "I'm fine. Let's go eat." She made the way to the kitchen. Taunting Ivan on the way about not allowing him to have any of the food she was going to make. She quickly cooked up a small lunch.

"Yeah Ivan, guess what Alexis just made?" asked Bryan after he had helped set the table and eat half the food. He was now carrying a nearly empty bottle of Tequila.

"What," muttered the now pissed off Ivan.

"BURGERS!"

"WHAT? THAT IS SOOOO UNFAIR! I. WANT. SOME!"

Alexis and Bryan fell about the kitchen laughing, gaining quizzical stares from Tala and Spencer, who had been watching the teasing from the doorway.

"Since when have those two gotten on so well?" asked Spencer as he saw the two passing a new bottle of vodka over Ivan's head.

"I think it's only when they have something in common."

"And what exactly is that right now?"

"Taking the piss out of Ivan."

"Oh I see…" Spencer trailed off as he grinned at the ordeal in front of him. Alexis and Bryan had both grabbed Ivan in a headlock and Bryan passed the burgers teasingly in front of the poor Ivan's face. Both Alexis and Bryan were red in the face from laughing.

"They sure are having a good time…but…it's not fair on Ivan."

"Well make them stop. You are the captain."

"GUYS STOP IT! FOOD IS FOR EATING NOT MESSING AROUND!"

"So says the guy that played basketball with oranges," muttered Bryan.

"No way?" Alexis said. Ivan had been strapped to a chair, which Alexis and Bryan were holding from the legs and spinning around. Ivan was now forgotten as he hung upside down and gagged; they were now discussing Tala's techniques of BasketOrange and his game of 'Whack Apples with a Baseball Bat at Passing Cars'.

Alexis and Bryan didn't even realise when Spencer reached over their shoulders and lifted the chair out of their hands.

"You Stupid Moron…! Do you seriously think that if you whack it at the exhaust the car would break down?" yelled Bryan in Alexis's face.

"Yes," she replied with an exasperated look, "I speak from experience."

"Oh yeah, coz you so knew about hard apples damaging cars!"

"I didn't use a apple you halfwit, I used Pantera."

Silence

"What for exactly?" asked Tala.

Alexis quickly glanced at a camera that had been fitted into the knob on one of the kitchen cupboards.

----

"Yes Alexis, do tell us all about Pantera. He seems like such a powerful bitbeast," whispered Boris as he stood over his handpicked technicians as they ran through all of the footage they had accumulated over the past few days.

Boris's eyes bore into the image of Alexis that had been blown up on a large screen situated on one of the walls. He frowned as Alexis's voice came in over the speakers.

_-"Well…it was a prank I pulled on one of my old friends. It was his brother's car…but he was in it."-_ The image of Alexis showed a cold gleam in her golden eyes at the memories. This was noted down by one of Boris's men, a psychologist.

The camera zoomed out of the neko's face and the screen switched to another camera, showing Ivan now standing beside Spencer and glaring daggers at Bryan and Alexis.

Boris hissed under his breath as he realised he wasn't going to get any more information from them right now.

"I will get you Alexis, mark my words, I will get you." He turned and left the room.

----

Alexis stood in front of the trampoline, shooting looks of pure loathing at Bryan, who had gotten her into this situation.

"All you have to do is work around the circuit and we'll time you. Best record is 3 minutes and 22.7 seconds. See if you can beat 4 on your first try."

Alexis scanned the obstacle course. She had to run across a three metre metal pole, jump across a 2 metre wide pool, use the monkey bars across one side of the gym, climb up the wall, crawl under the beams and then jump across the trampoline. Alexis sighed; this was a peace of cake. She was a neko-jin after all. She walked over to the starting point.

"Alright Alexis, on your marks…"

She bent her knees slightly, ready to jump up.

"Get set, GO!"

She jumped, landing perfectly onto the bar; her feet barely touched the bar as she ran across it. When she reached the end, she bunched her legs under herself and jumped across the gap, her hands clawing at the bars above her head. Her right hand grabbed onto the first bar and she hauled herself along the monkey bars. When she finally got to the end, she landed on all fours and slipped under the first beam, pulling herself across the ground. Once she got to the end of it she swung herself up onto the trampoline her feet skipping across the tarpaulin. She got to the edge and jumped up over the finishing line. She looked up from her crouching position, her breath coming out in small puffs as she hadn't started panting yet.

Silence

"Emmm… it took you…" Bryan trailed off as he looked at the stopwatch in his hand. "2 minutes and 53.4 seconds."

Alexis smirked behind her bandana as she stood up to her full height.

"Well done," commented Tala as he studied Alexis. He stood about a metre away from her, examining every inch of her. He began to walk around her, assessing all of her abilities. "Alright Spencer go and practice your aiming with Ivan. You and Bryan…I want to see you two in hand-to-hand combat. Ok?"

"Yes Sir!" They both shouted and Bryan slumped off to the combat area.

"COME ON ALEXIS!"

She growled under her breath and followed him.

Tala sat on a bench, while Alexis and Bryan pulled off their shoes; Alexis refused to take her socks off. Both were left in a pair of black combats and a white tee. Alexis stood a metre away from Bryan, her eyes shifting from his hands to his feet and then back up again.

"Scared kitty?" he asked taunting.

"You wish."

"Ok guys," commanded Tala, "1, 2, 3 GO!"

As quick as lightning, Bryan's arm shot out as he aimed a punch at Alexis's midriff. Alexis took a quick step back, her right arm raised to protect her centre and her left hand grabbed his wrist. She pulled his arm and spun him around, twisting his arm behind his back in the process. He quickly bucked, sending Alexis flying backwards. She landed with a hard thump on her backside.

"That's it Kuznetsov, you asked for It." She lunged at him, her foot sliding between his and sweeping to the right. Bryan lost his balance as Alexis's knee made contact with his calf, sending him tumbling to the ground, but quick as a flash he was up again. He dropped down so his arms were behind him, holding himself up off of the ground, and his legs spread in front of him. His foot shot up, aiming for the back of Alexis's knee. Alexis jumped up, just in the nick of time, landing behind Bryan, who was now crouched low. He pounced, lunging at Alexis. He caught and held onto her wrist, spinning her around and sticking his knee in her back. Alexis started to resist, pushing him backwards. Suddenly, she dropped down onto her front, giving her a split second chance of escaping from underneath the teenage boy as he lost his balance. They continued like this for over ten minutes, as if taking it in turns to overpower one another.

Finally, both puffing and panting, they collapsed. Alexis lay spread out on her front, breathing deeply. Bryan lay beside her, on his back, panting and swearing colourfully.

"That was so fucking hard. I've never had a bloody workout so fucking hard! I can't believe I didn't take you out from the second we started!"

Tala stood over the two of them. He nudged Alexis with the toe of his boot, "that was good. Both of you were quiet interesting to watch. Spencer and Ivan even stopped their practice to come and watch you."

"Who won?" rasped Bryan as he reached out to grab a bottle of water.

"You drew, I guess you could say that you've finally found your match Bryan."

Bryan choked on his water, spraying Alexis as he shouted, "What!"

"Dude, say it don't spray it!" she yelped as she wiped the front of her tee shirt. Bryan chuckled at her futile attempts of drying it and grinned as he poured the rest of the bottle over her head.

"BRYAN KUZNETSOV! WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" She roared as she jumped up and chased said teenage boy around the gym.

"Come and catch me kitty! If you do…then I might just scratch you behind your ears." He yelped as an empty plastic bottle clipped him on the side of his head.

----

"Well, at least we know he's very athletic and can run very fast," muttered Boris under his breath. He continued to watch Bryan's desperate attempts to get away from Alexis's clutches. "My, my, we are stubborn," he whispered as he watched Alexis try and wrestle off Spencer and Tala and get to Bryan. "Hmm, he is quiet amusing. I'd love to have a pet cat like him." He laughed at the mere image of Alexis being petted, "He'd claw my eyes out."

----

Alexis got out of bed, looking over at the silhouette of the sleeping Tala. She looked up at the glowing hands of the clock hanging on the wall, 3 am. She swung her legs over the side of the bed. Stumbling over the clothes strewn all over the floor, all her own, she reached the bathroom door and stepped in. When she finally finished washing and brushing her hair and teeth, she left the bathroom and went back to the bed.

'_Alexis…when are you going to put that gadget thing…wouldn't it be easier for you? You wouldn't have to wear that bandana to bed.'_

'_I forgot about that.'_

'_And why did you brush your hair and teeth if you were going to go back to bed anyway?'_

'_I just felt like it. Impulse I guess.'_

She stepped out of the room and walked quietly down the corridor and down the stairs, her feet barely making a whisper across the carpet. She was on the first floor, when she heard the sound of humming and fingers drumming on the kitchen worktop. "Spencer," she whispered. She'd recognise that beat anywhere. She slipped silently up to the kitchen door and stood standing there, her eyes taking in the sight of a half naked Spencer, only in his boxers, waiting for the kettle to boil.

"Hey."

He spun around, holding a spoon in his hand in defence. When he saw it was Alexis, he grinned sheepishly and put it down.

"Hey yourself."

Alexis scanned the kitchen; a memory of how Boris's men had left it crept before her eyes. The image of the whipped cream, chocolate sauce and all the food they had found in the fridge and the cupboards had been smeared all over the worktops, floor and tiled walls.

She walked over to a bottom cupboard, sat cross-legged in front of it and opened it. "What you gonna eat Spencer?"

"Food."

She turned and raised a perfect eyebrow. Spencer looked down at the neko-jin's face and narrowed his eyes. Somehow, the raised eyebrow, the hair in a wild mess, the minimum amount of light of the kitchen setting the golden eyes in dark shadows and the bandana across the face creeped him out a bit.

"Sandwiches."

"Orange?"

"Huh?"

Alexis pulled three oranges out of the cupboard and handed one to the surprised Spencer.

"Oranges this time of year?"

"Hn," Alexis grunted as she peeled the orange. She folded the bandana up, so that her mouth was showing, but her nose was still covered. She threw the peel in the bin and sat on the tiled floor in her shorts and ate her orange, juice dripping down her chin.

"You're nearly as bad as Bryan."

"Hn…what are you gonna do next?"

"Well," Spencer said, as his thoughts roamed over the possibilities of what he could do at three in the morning. "I could go down to the gym and train for a while."

Alexis's eyes widened, "train voluntarily?"

"Yeah, why not?" he asked defensively.

"Nothing, let's go train," she muttered sarcastically.

They finished their food and went down the stairs to the gym (basement). Alexis, who could see quiet clearly in the dark, when she bothered to look properly, walked over to the monkey bars they had used in practice that morning and jumped. At that moment Spencer turned the lights on. He sucked in a breath as he saw Alexis swinging herself over and under the bars. She pulled herself up onto the top of the bars and balanced with her legs spread wide open in the splits. She slowly pushed her legs upwards, so that she was in a handstand position with her legs still in the splits. She then put her legs together and threw herself off of the monkey bars, landing neatly on her hands and feet. She stood up straight and pretended to bow to an audience.

"Thank you Moscow, thank you. I'd love to try and win the gold medal in gymnastics for my _beloved_ country…but I haven't got the _time_," she said in a high falsetto voice, gaining a roar of laughter from Spencer. She grinned at him from behind her bandana and plopped down onto the ground.

Spencer walked over to her and sat in front of her. Alexis crossed her legs and clasped her hands together. Spencer did the same, somehow knowing that Alexis was going to teach him something. He watched as she closed her eyes and began to breath slowly.

"Meditation?" he asked in a low whisper.

Alexis ignored his query and continued her breathing exercise. When she was finally satisfied with her breathing, she opened her eyes and locked them with Spencer's.

"What do you know about the state of complete calm?"

"…"

"Have you even heard of it?"

"No."

"Well, as you can see from the name it's when your body and mind are reduced to a state where you are totally calm and all emotions and feelings and other stuff like that are in the back of your mind. You can control whatever you do, feel, say, think, etc. It helps a lot when I'm beyblading or doing any other extreme activity." Spencer nodded to show he was following her. "When you're in the state of complete calm, you can have a complete and unbreakable connection with your bitbeast. You can speak to your bitbeast right?" He nodded again.

"Good, that's one of the main connections. Now first, you have to control your mind and body. Breathing exercises are great."

"I do them whenever I lose my temper and sometimes before I go to sleep."

Alexis grinned, "good. Now all you have to do is start breathing in and out in a perfect rhythm. Carry on until your heart beat and your breathing are following a pattern, they don't have to be in perfect sync, they just have to follow a regular pattern, understood?" Nod.

"Ok, let's start."

They sat for over twenty minutes, until Spencer felt happy with his own progress in his breathing exercise.

"Now what?"

"Well, what you have to do is detach yourself from your feelings. What you have to do is split yourself into two parts, physical and mental."

Spencer screwed his face up in complete concentration. When Alexis noticed this she placed a cold hand on each cheek and smoothed out his forehead. "Relax. With tension and extreme concentration you start feeling things. Just release everything. Block out everything and loosen up," she whispered reassuringly. "If you don't get it the first time, it's perfectly normal. People I know took months to work out how to perfect their first step…you know the fixing up of your breathing rhythm. That means you're doing great."

Spencer opened his eyes, a look of sadness on his face. "I can't do it."

Alexis grimaced behind her bandana. If it's this hard with just one of them, how will it be with the other three?

"That's okay. Watch me…and remember I've been doing this since I was seven…so don't let this put you off."

Alexis relaxed her body, all the muscles loosening up. Spencer watched as she quickly settled her breathing into a perfect rhythm. He looked into Alexis's eyes and saw her slip out of herself. He could tell she was in the state of complete calm by the detached expression, as if she wasn't there but in another world.

"Alexis?"

It was a while before he got an answer, "Hm?"

"Teach me how you just did that."

A small, yet visible, gleam shone through her dimmed eyes. "Practice your breathing every night before you sleep, for at least half an hour, and whenever you get free time. Do that for a week, till you get to a good rate. Then come back and I'll teach you the next step. You're doing great. Even I didn't get this far on my first try. It took me over three days," she lied simply. It took a while before she felt the guilt of lying to him, a long time after she saw a look of extreme pride and pleasure come over Spencer's face.

"Thanks Alexis…hey are you gonna teach the others about it? It would be great."

A few seconds passed before she said, "sure…if you think if it's a good idea."

"Cheers Alexis, Boris made a good decision by getting you to join. Goodnight…and don't worry Ill practice my breathing," he said as he yawned. "But not now…I'm knackered."

"S'okay," muttered Alexis as she dragged herself out of the blissful and complete peace that overcame her when she was in her state.

"Goodnight Alexis."

"Goodnight."

"By the way…don't forget…tomorrow is New Year's Eve."

He left; humming the same tune she had heard him humming when they had first met in the kitchen upstairs.

'_Pantera…do me a favour and go check on him and see when he finally falls asleep.'_

'_Invisibly or visibly?'_

'_What do you think?'_

Pantera chuckled as he left the recess in the back of her mind. He was invisible to everyone, everyone but his wielder (Alexis).

'_I have a job to do,'_ she told herself as she switched off the lights and left the gym.

Alexis made her way through the hallway and through a side door that connected the house to the garage. She pulled out the S64.9 PR that she had smuggled in before training. Checking that there wasn't anything watching her and recording her movements, she turned as Pantera padded into her mind. _'He's asleep alright.'_

Alexis smiled_. 'Good, now I can get on with what I was supposed to do.' _

She walked over to the main power supply and switched off the power. _'As easy as taking candy from a baby,'_ she sniggered. Quickly and methodically, she fixed the S64.9 PR in place between the main power supply and what was obviously the back up supply. She dialled in the code, flicking switches and turning mini and complicated dials. All this was done in the dark and under half a minute.

'_Hurry Alexis…time is running out.'_

'_Ah,'_ she said as she flicked the last switches. _'Here goes nothing._' And she pressed the final button.

A screeching sound, like a million alarm bells, sirens and drums erupted in her head.

----

_**Well, not much of a cliffhanger…but whatever. I'm proud of it. It gets pretty interesting from here. Oh btw I don't think the state of complete calm is real…I made that all up, but I thought it was pretty cool and decided to let you know all about my weirdass mind. Now all you have to do is click on the little button below and review. Even if you don't have an account, I've allowed it to have anonymous reviews. **_

_**Here lies XxxMidNighT's brain.**_

_**R.I.P**_

_**(or does the R.I.P come first?)**_




	14. Chapter 12

Hey people…ok, I'm sorry for not putting this up earlier, but I can't exactly do a million things at the same time. I also know that many people won't be reading this chapter (I can tell coz my hits are getting less by the day…or should I say chapter), so everyone who is reading thanks I love you guys. I'm in a crappy mood as I don't have much spare time and I only typed this thing up coz I felt bad about breaking my promise, which was to put this chapter up weeks ago. As I said before (I think), my profile has a sort of notice board at the bottom where I will put up messages for anyone that might bother reading it. So…oh yeah, I promised I'd dedicate this chapter to **_xXxLuna-the-ChosenxXx_** and well I haven't forgotten ).

Another thing before I forget, in the character profiles (of my own characters) there is one person (**Gustafson**) that has a mistake in his profile. It says he's 6 ft 1…he's not. He's 5ft9ish.

So on with the reading, please review…I don't mind getting comments on my crappy writing, but it is kinda hard to come up with good ideas when you have semi-writer's block.

----

A beeping sound escaped a small device set into the wall of every room in his house. Boris sat up, what now?

"_Sir!"_ came a distance voice through the speakers.

"What now?" he spat.

"_How do I say this…we can't see or hear anything from the house, it's blocked us out somehow."_

"WHAT?" he roared. "How is that possible? I bought the best quality there was, and I also bought a hell of a lot of it."

"_Well you see sir,"_ came the quaking voice as a screen at the other end of his room lit up to show a man standing before a room full of technicians. They were all rushing around, fiddling with settings in the computers. _"We lost contact with the house a few minutes ago. We can't get back through."_

"How?"

"_Apparently there was a power cut in the house…"_

"AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BACKUP POWER SUPPLY?"

"_We switched it on, but we couldn't get anything…just static."_

"Show me recorded footage from the cameras!" he ordered. Behind the man, several cameras from several rooms showed images of the boys sleeping. "Where is Alexis?" he hissed once he realised that the neko's bed was empty.

"_We haven't got a clue. All the lights in the house are switched off."_

"Well then look at the _thermal_ cameras! They'll show him up if he's in the house."

The images were replaced by black squares that showed red lumps proving that four of the team members were in bed.

"_Down in the hallway!"_ shouted one of the technicians. A thermal image of a nimble figure rushed past the camera, it was obviously Alexis.

"WHY HAVEN'T WE GOT THE WHOLE CORRIDOR COVERED? THERE ARE BLANKS ALL OVER THE HOUSE!"

The men shook as Boris's voice reverberated through their room. They were in for it now.

----

Meanwhile, in Japan:

"Phone's for you!"

"Shut up Tyson, I'm trying to sleep!"

"Phone's. For. You!"

"I. Don't. Care. About. Some. Crummy. Advert. GO AWAY!"

"What Tyson means, Kai, is that someone is on the phone and wants to talk to you," explained Ray.

Kai stretched his hand out, waiting for the cordless to be handed to him.

"Here," said Ray as he gave it to him and left, dragging Tyson and Daichi out behind him.

"_Hey Kai. This is Hiro."_

Kai opened his eyes as he recognised the older Granger's voice. "Hey."

"_I heard you were going to Russia for two weeks on some trip Kenny set you up to."_

"Hn."

"_So you're leaving the others…Kai, do you expect them to train while you're gone?"_

Silence.

"_I guess not."_

"Kenny said he'd work something out."

"Yes, he did. That's where I come in. He told me to come over while you're gone and keep an eye on them. I don't think Gramps has the time or the patience to control both Tyson **and** Daichi…do you?"

"Not exactly, but I don't think they'll need you. Ray can handle them fine."

"You know Tyson, he'll take your trip to Russia as an opportunity to relax…Daichi too. And Kai…"

"Hn?"

"You forget that as a Tyson's **older **brother, I have some 'Granger rights' over him."

"I guess you could come over this Friday," said Kai thinking over the prospect of Tyson being bossed around without him having to move a finger.

"_Ok, can I speak to Kenny?"_

"KENNY!"

The younger boy came rushing into the room. "Yes Kai. Em ah well," was all he could say when he saw the phone in Kai's hand. His stuttering was brought to a halt.

"Take it," said Kai and Kenny nervously picked the phone out of Kai's hand and rushed out of the room.

"Thanks for agreeing Kai," said Kenny to his back when he finally came back.

"Hrm," came the growl.

"I told the others…Tyson is still in shock, but I think he'll get over it soon."

"Kenny?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know what time it is?"

"Sorry, I left my watch at home-"

"It's my time to get some sleep. Go."

Kenny quietly backed out of the room, mentally noting that it was quiet odd for Kai to be sleeping at this time.

----

Tala stretched and rubbed his pained ears. His head was pounding as an odd sound, like a whistle, went off in the house. What was that noise, and where was it coming from?

He looked over at the bed on the other side of the room the bed on the other side of the room and glowered as he realised the neko-jin was elsewhere. Tripping over Alexis's scattered belongings, he made his way to the bedroom door.

"Alexis," he hissed, "guy leaves the room a mess and expects it to tidy itself up…"

He left his shared bedroom and crossed the hallway to the other one. Opening the door he was greeted with two pained expressions and a rather angry one.

"What's going on Tala?" asked Spencer, "and what the hell is that noise?"

"You can hear it too?"

"Duh!" grumbled Bryan.

Tala shrugged, and then froze as they heard a load roar come from down stairs.

"Kitty Boy!" yelled Bryan as he rushed out the room, ignoring the fact that his shoulder had just smashed into the doorframe. He was closely followed by a much more careful Tala and Spencer. Ivan grumbled as he slowly dragged himself out of the bed.

"Stupid neko-jin! Loves getting into trouble and waking us up."

He stumbled out of the room and followed the others down the stairs. The closer the boys got to the ground floor, the louder the noise was.

"It's coming from the garage," snarled Spencer through his clenched teeth. Another roar erupted through the doorway, this time sounding completely different.

Alexis lent against the wall, her eyes shut tight and her lips pursed together._ 'Alexis listen to me!'_ yelled Pantera from the sanctuary at the back of her mind. He was completely ignored as Alexis tried to fight off the pain that was spreading through her head. _'Alexis-'_

The sounds continued to explode in her head. Alexis collapsed to the ground, clawing at her ears and screaming. She let out an ear splitting panther's roar (Google it…it's nothing like a lion's roar). She gasped in pain and pure agony, the ringing and screeching getting louder in her ears.

Pantera tried to push his way through her mind, _'ALEXIS SHUT IT OUT!'_ he roared in her mind. But to no avail, Alexis was suffering and it was too extreme for her.

"Alexis?"

Instinctively, Alexis had curled up in the foetal position, her arms wrapped around her head as if to block out the noise. Without notice, she felt arms wrap around her waist as someone lifted her off of the ground and threw her over their shoulder. The high-pitched sound covered the sound of the garage door opening. She shivered slightly as the cold winter air whipped her bare arms and legs and the snow made contact with her skin. Then, as quickly as she was lifted up, she was dumped in the snow. The sound here was quieter, yet still significantly audible for Alexis, still there, but quieter nonetheless.

"You ok kid?" asked Spencer.

"Urghhhhhhhhh."

"Alexis? You ok?"

"Do I look ok?" she hissed. She opened her eyes for a second to see four faces looking down at her. Tala grabbed one of her wrists and tried to prise it away from her ear. "NO! NO! It hurts!" she yelled

"What does?"

"That sound is KILLING me…my ears are literally bleeding!"

"The really annoying whiny sound that goes on and on?" muttered Bryan.

The reply was a shaky nod. _'Alexis, tell them to change the green frequency setting from six to three,'_ came Pantera's voice.

Alexis squinted through the curtains of pain at the others, "there's a small box stuck on the wall between the mains supply and a black, metal cabinet…It's…It's got a green knob that you've gotta turn to two."

No questions were asked as Tala and Ivan rushed back to the house. Alexis yelled out in pain as the sound level increased. Then finally ceased.

"Is it gone now Alexis?" whispered Bryan.

"…"

"What was it?"

"A signal-blocking device."

"Is it to stop the cameras and stuff broadcasting?" asked Spencer.

"_You knew?"_ Alexis was surprised.

"How come you could hear that sound?" asked Bryan.

"I set the frequency too high," she muttered as she stood up, dusting the white snow off of her pale legs. She smiled behind her bandana at Ivan's Thumbs Up signal. Then, for the first time she took in her surroundings. They were out on the street, hiding in the bushes across the road from Skreknell. The sky was an inky black, the snow was like a luxurious carpet and the night was only lit by the glowing streetlamps. Although the boys were scarcely dressed, the cold didn't seem to effect them.

Back in the living room, Alexis dropped to her knees in front of the fire. The others sprawled across the couches, except Bryan who was sitting right beside Alexis.

"Sooo…what are we going to do now?" asked Ivan as he stretched.

"You knew about the cameras and you didn't tell me? Why did you go back to Boris…I thought you had left him, and how come you knew about the cameras and you didn't say or do anything?"

Tala looked up at the ceiling, as if searching for the right way to put it. "Boris promised he would only be our 'manager', not really into our stuff…just by name. We even signed a contract saying whenever we felt like it we could leave, but a few months ago Boris decided to get involved. We didn't think he'd go back to his old tricks of spying on us…but we're kind of used to it. We weren't as bothered as you were."

"Used to it? I mean…I saw everything you did to try and bring down Boris last year. What happened? I mean you were all out to bring down BEGA. You were put in a bloody hospital for crying out loud!"

Tala's eyes narrowed and he looked her up and down.

"Why don't you just leave him?"

Finally, it was Spencer that broke the silence. "We can't leave him," muttered Spencer.

"Why?"

"He gives us everything we need…"

"Don't you remember when he hit you? That was definitely not what you needed."

Spencer looked away and said, "It's not like we're with him 24/7."

"That still doesn't mean you need him. You guys are in the top ten richest teens in Russia and you're telling me you need this scumbag to give you what you need?"

"What are you doing in this team then?" came the hiss from Ivan.

"I can go and leave whenever I want…remember Boris didn't make me sign a contract. I'm only staying coz you are," she said, as she looked each of them pointedly in the eye.

"Doubt it," muttered Bryan.

"What's that supposed to mean? I mean, this is the first time I'm trying to get along with people and get into the so called 'team spirit' and actually bothering to stay with you guys and you're telling me that you don't think I'm bothered about what happens to this team?"

"Yes."

"Well fuck you!" she hissed. "If that's what you think then I'm leaving." Alexis made to get up, but was pulled back down by Spencer.

"Alexis…Stay." He looked down and straight into her eyes. "Bryan's just pissed off that you woke him up. He's not serious, he's just trying to piss you off."

Alexis turned and muttered something under her breath. "He's right Alexis, I'm only winding you up. Looks like it's worked."

Tala rolled his eyes, "Let's leave this for another time. We got New Years shopping to do in the morning…"

Alexis watched as Spencer, Ivan and Tala made to leave the room. "I'm staying down here, keep an eye on things in case Boris's men try something stupid."

Tala turned to her, "fine."

"Me too." Alexis spun around and looked at Bryan who was flicking through magazines and books near his DVD shelf.

"Oh no you're not."

"Oh yes I am."

Alexis fell silent planning every single method of torturing Bryan. The other three watched the silent battle that raged between the two. Ivan cleared his throat. "Well I'm off to bed." He left, closely followed by Spencer and his captain.

Alexis growled and stretched out in front of the glowing embers. Bryan switched off the overhead light, but then turned on one of the lamps beside the couch so that he could read. "Why do you like sleeping on the floor kitty?"

"Can't break habits."

"I see," he drawled.

"You take the first shift."

"Fine. Shall I wake you up later?"

"Hn."

----

Bryan looked up from his magazine and at the grandfather clock. _'5:30 am been here for an hour.'_ He grinned evilly then whispered, "Alexis…Alexis?"

No reply.

He tiptoed quietly towards the neko-jin and sat down behind her. Looking over he shoulder he could just make out the bandana under the strands of black and red.

'Eyes closed, check. Not moving much, check. Deep breathing, check.' He stretched his hand out tentatively. His fingers moved closer, inch be inch towards the bandana. His fingers were now a millimetre away.

"Don't even think about it Bryan," came the not-so-sleepy voice from beneath him.

Bryan leapt back, his hand drawn close as if stung. "What the fuck? You were asleep…you've been in that position for ages and you…you…YOU WERE ASLEEP!" He moved around her, so that he was between her and the fireplace.

"You **_were_** asleep."

A perfect eyebrow rose on the seemingly asleep face, Alexis had yet to open her eyes.

"You looked bloody unconscious."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you."

Bryan snorted and lent back. Silence hung around them. Not one moved an inch.

"Why didn't you let us have Christmas?"

Alexis didn't seem shaken by the question, but it took a few seconds for her to answer. "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

She did.

**FLASHBACK**

There were three rooms upstairs, excluding the two bedrooms. Alexis had never understood why they had been made to share when they could have had a bedroom each. One had been converted to an office for Tala. One was a 'lab' for Spencer and the other was just a room full of boxes.

Tala sat at his desk in his office. Alexis stood at the door, not moving, not saying a word.

"Come in Alexis," said Tala without even looking up.

Alexis took a step in and then stopped. "What are you doing?" she asked. Her voice was slightly louder than usual as Bryan was listening to music in his bedroom and Ivan and Spencer were 'experimenting' in their lab.

"Just trying to hire a tree," he said as he flicked through the pages of the phone book.

"Don't."

"Pardon?" Tala finally looked up, "Alexis are you ok?"

Alexis looked past him and out the window. Behind him the white snow covered the backyard, and at the back of that was a gate that led onto an alleyway. She stared at the immense amount of white and sighed.

Tala's forehead creased in a frown.

"I don't feel Christmassy this year," she muttered.

Tala was silent, waiting for her to continue.

"Something happened, and I don't think I can take Christmas this year." Alexis finally turned to Tala; questioning blue eyes met golden walls that seemed to be blocking the truth. From one quick assessment of Alexis's posture and voice, Tala could see that the neko-jin was tense and slightly upset.

"I see," he said as he pushed the phone book away. "If you don't want it then…we can…if the others ask me I'll have to tell them to speak to you. I'm not taking responsibility for any mess that will come up. Bryan and Ivan will definitely notice, they like Christmas." He fell silent as he searched Alexis's face for a change, and was met with none.

Alexis nodded once and spun on her heel. She pulled the door closed behind her, but before the door snapped shut Tala could have sworn he heard Alexis whisper something.

"Thanks Tala."

END FLASHBACK 

Alexis sat up and met Bryan's lilac eyes. She blinked and continued to stare at him.

"Well?" he asked unfazed.

"Well what?"

"Why didn't you let us have Christmas?" Bryan blinked as he noticed a flicker of something pass over her face. Alexis shook her head, "I don't know what you mean." She glared at the heavy drapes that hung over the window to their left.

"Yes you do. Why didn't you let us have Christmas?" The question this time was louder, more insistent and Bryan's voice was laced with impatience.

Alexis's head snapped back towards him, her eyes narrowed and full of emotions. Bryan had a few seconds to see them and recognise a few. Hate, anger, pain and loss. These were quickly pushed down and replaced by the iciest look he had ever seen.

"Please stop asking that, I didn't hold you back did I?"

Bryan snorted, "you stopped Tala from ordering the tree and the decorators. Don't deny it Alexis."

"I'm not denying anything."

"I asked him why he didn't get anything done, and do you know what he told me?"

"What?" asked Alexis exasperation evident in her voice.

" 'Go ask Alexis.' That's what." Silence reigned in the room, tension rising.

"So Alexis…I ask again. Why didn't you let us have Christmas??"

Alexis took a deep breath to steady her breathing.

"Oi! I'm talking to you."

"SHUT UP! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, DON'T YOU THINK I HAVE A GOOD REASON FOR NOT TELLING YOU?"

"Dude, chill. You'll die of a heart attack."

Alexis growled, eyes flashing and body tensing.

'He does have a point you know Alexis. By the way, when was the last time you had your period? You must be PMSing. You have a severe medical condition. You're mood swings are outrageous. I can't believe you let your emotions get the better of you. My, my Alexis-'

"SHUT UP!" she roared.

"hey," said Bryan, hands raised. "I haven't said anything…yet."

"That's it!" Alexis lunged at him, knocking him backwards. His head was just millimetres away from the metal that surrounded the fireplace.

"I HATE YOU!" she shouted as she tried to grab at his throat.

"LIKE WISE!" Bryan yelled back, trying to keep Alexis from strangling him.

Alexis now had her knee pressing into his chest, her hands reaching for his throat. But no matter how hard she pushed down, Bryan held her back. He had positoned his arms in a way so that they used the ground for support. Alexis could barely move and he had his hands clamped down around her wrists. His fingers would probably leave marks later on.

Alexis hissed at him from behind her bandana.

'Alexis leave him.'

No response.

'Alexis I'm talking to you!'

Alexis relaxed and felt Bryan relax as well. Jumping up, she turned and switched the lamp light off.

"Too weak to carry on Alexis?"

Pretending not hear him, she turned and strode towards the window. She yanked the drapes back and mad herself comfortable in the window seat.

"You wouldn't want to celebrate Christmas either if you'd gone trough the same things I did." Alexis turned and looked at him, her eyes were now two glowing golden orbs hidden in the shadows of her hair.

Bryan stared into her face; she had his undivided attention. Was Alexis going to tell him?

----

Mwahahahahaaaaaaa…-voice trails away- Not much of a cliffhanger now was it? Let's see if you can guess if Alexis will tell him anything. And if yes…what will it be?


	15. Chapter 13: You have to move on

YES FINALLY!!! Another chapter is here. I've been putting this off for so long that for a while I thought it would never get up and that (god forbid) my story would never finish.

HAVE NO FEAR! XxxMidNighT is here and typing this chapter for anyone who bothers to read it. I wrote this in three different ways, over the long gap, and EVENTUALLY came up with the one I thought was just right. Yesterday! It took me that long!!!!

Anyway, I won't bore you with author talk (omg I'm an author!!! Lol) and I'd like to ask you to review. Anything. Just give me your opinion, even one word, to describe what you think of it.

Alexis tilted her head one way and then the other, her eyes shut as though sorting out things in her head. "I…I used to look after someone, a girl, an orphan. She," deep breath, "she was the sweetest thing ever. She meant the world to me.

"We lived together for about eight years, we were so close. I did everything I could so I could give her the best. I worked my butt off studying; I finished school three bloody years ago. Whenever she wanted something I'd go out, beyblade and bring back my money. BAM, instant income and the money went to her education, her extra curricular activities, her entertainment. I barely slept, staying up when she was ill… everything. For nothing!"

Bryan flinched, "how come?"

Alexis turned back to him, "she was my baby." She hadn't heard him. "I taught her how to walk, talk, and feed herself. I potty trained her. I put her to sleep. I _sang_ her to sleep.

"In the beginning I changed her nappies, washed her, fed her, and watched over her. Hah! Do you know how funny it looked? A fucking eight year old taking care of a baby? People made fun of me. Kids thought I was weird being cooped up with a toddler…"

"Then what?"

Alexis let out a shaky sigh. "Last year, in about March, I…I took her camping. We swam in the lake, but it was too cold for her and she fell ill. The doctors 'cured' her, but she'd always had a weak immunity. Then…one day last Christmas, she went out in the snow without me knowing. She came back all cold and shivering. A week later she, she…well you know. 'Coz of pneumonia." She fell silent and continued to twist strands of hair around her hand.

"It wasn't your fault," rasped Bryan.

"I should have been more careful."

"You can't watch a kid forever."

"I knew I should have been more careful."

"Everyone loves snow…she'd have gone out one way or another."

"I killed her."

"OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ALEXIS!" she snapped out of her bubble and turned to look at him. "Stop killing yourself. You've gotta get over it. Move on for God's sake."

Alexis shook her head, "you have no idea- you weren't even there! You have no idea what it's like!"

"You just took me there and back Alexis. For a few minutes there I was you, I understood you, I could see the world through _**your**_eyes. Do you know what I saw?" Alexis's hands pushed at the glass of the window, as though she wanted to just sink right through, away from Bryan, away from his common sense.

"Do you know what I saw Alexis? Do you? I saw a dark world, like the sun went out-"

"My sun went out, she went out…"

"- I saw self hate, the walls that you put up. I saw your view about _us_, about people. You wanna get away from the world Lexi? Huh? You wanna go through life without getting close to anyone again? No. You don't."

Alexis's eyes glared back at him.

"You think it. Yeah, you _**think**_ it Lexi. You want to _**believe**_ it. You want to show everyone else _'Hey I'm a big guy I don't need anyone_'. But guess what mate, you know it isn't gonna bloody happen."

"Prove it!" she spat, turning away from him. Dreading his answer.

"Prove it? Prove it! I don't have to fucking prove anything! _**You**_ did. You came here. You joined a team. Hell, if there's anything close enough to a family for me it'd be those twats sleeping upstairs."

Alexis whined, why was he right? How could he know? Why him, of all people to tear down her guard…get straight to her heart? What had she done?

"Get over it Alexis. I mean it. You can remember her-"

"Tai! She was called Tai!" she choked out.

"Yeah, you remember Tai. But if I'm right about you, if I understood the way you cared for her, I know hands down she wouldn't want you seeing the world the way you do."

Alexis's shoulders drooped, "fuck you. Fuck you and your common sense."

Bryan gave her back a pained smile. He went closer and put his hand on her shoulder. "Lexi …we've got training later one. Get some sleep… brother."

Anyone who got this far press that little button and review, even 'crap' or 'ok' is fine by me. And yeah, it's short. I know, but it gets to the point. As I said I wrote two other chapters and they were long, but they just seemed to go on and on! Personally, I think my writing is getting a bit interesting…compared to what it was like when I started off. Anyway, I can't wait to type up my next chapter. I've written out half of it already!! Whoopee.


	16. Chapter 14: New Year's Eve

Here is the promised chapter. This isn't like the previous chapters, it's a little different…but I loved writing it. I hope you love reading it as much. It's how I imagine a Blitzkrieg New Year to be. Too late for the New Year, but whatever, read and review.

* * *

"Checkmate!" crowed Ivan as he swung his queen into Alexis's king for the hell of it. "You suck Alexis."

Alexis looked up from the chessboard and Ivan's triumphant expression fell. _'Where's the fun in winning when the other guy isn't even bothered?'_ He could see Alexis's thoughts were miles away. "You in there?" he yelled waving a hand in her face.

"Where else pea brain?"

"Yeah, you tell him Lexi," encouraged Bryan as he turned over page of his book.

"Shut up Bry," grumbled Ivan as he set the chess pieces back in place, "again?"

Alexis shrugged and took her first move.

"Hitler was a maniac."

"We already knew that Bryan. We didn't need to read 'Politics through the ages' to find out."

"At least I can read."

"I can read!" hollered Ivan.

"Yeah, your name."

The light chuckle surprised them both and they smiled at their accomplishment. I van chose to ignore Bryan's comments and knocked out Alexis's bishop.

Bryan watched as Alexis's army dwindled from over the top of his book. He could still remember that lost look she'd given him two nights ago. Since then he'd watched as Alexis drew further inwards. _'Till he'll finally be too far gone,' _warned Falborg. _'Help him Bryan. He doesn't know what he's doing to himself.'_

'_I tried. He just won't speak to me anymore.'

* * *

_

Spencer poured a shot of vodka and threw it back. "Want some kid?" Alexis shook her head. "Fair enough," he said as he entered the living room and joined in with the singing.

"Shalalaa la laa la la la dumdumdum shalalaa la laa la la la- Come on Alexis sing."

"You've got to be kidding me," she grumbled. "Note to self," she said turning to the newcomer, "never try sleeping on New Year's Eve when _they're_ in the house. Come to think of it, you too."

He only smirked.

"No! No! No!" shouted a clearly drunk Ivan as he toppled off of the table. "Not Amarillo. Sing-err… I know!"

"Oh god, here we go."

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard and they're like-"

"It's better than yours!"

"Damn right-"

"It's better than yours!"

"I hang my head in shame, moaned Alexis. "Kelis. Will that be the end of the Blitzkrieg Boys?"

Spencer waved at Alexis, "sing man, sing!"

"I can't sing, and neither should you!" And then her knees buckled. Two pale white hands clamped over her eyes as someone straddled her back. "Ivanov!"

"How do you know it was me?"

"No one else in this house uses rose scented hand creams."

"Oh well…giddy up horsey!"

"Not over my dead body."

"I'm your captain and you'll do as I say. I say CHARGE!"

"How humiliating," she sighed as she gave in and crawled forward on her hands and knees.

"Faster horsey. Faster."

"You've had too much to drink," she shouted over her shoulder.

"I know!" he shouted back. "Faster!" He kicked her thigh.

"Oh no you didn't!" She slowly got up, but Tala still clung to her back like a limpet. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and his legs around her waist. "Tala, you weigh a fucking tonne."

"Alexis, you look like a bum."

"He's definitely had too much to drink," laughed a voice from behind her.

"I blame you Hiwatari," she growled ignoring Tala blowing in her ear and pinching the tip and tugging.

"You've ruined my life!"

"I like to know I've accomplished something over the holidays."

"Asshole."

"Are these fake?" queried Tala.

"No."

"Can I call you Legolas?"

Silence.

* * *

The five of them roared with laughter, their drinks sloshing about.

"This is not funny!" shouted Tala.

"Oh yes it is," choked Bryan.

"No! It isn't!"

This made them laugh even harder. Spencer was thumping his fist on the table while Ivan clutched his sides.

"You do know you'll have to wear that all night?" asked an innocent looking Kai. Tala hissed at him. "It suits you."

"Shut up."

"White lycra tights remind us just what your legs really look like. You should wear that outfit more often," snorted Bryan.

"Hah! Pink tutu," was all Alexis could manage.

"Alexis," he wined shoving her off of the back of the sofa. She stumbled. "Pay back." She burst out laughing at the ballerina outfit and pout. Even Pantera was laughing. "Payback for making me carry you around for an hour, and calling me Elf the whole time."

Kai and Bryan snorted. "You should be a ballerina not a beyblader."

Tala glowered and turned his back on the others. "I'll make you pay for this!"

"Yeah sure Ivanov. Poker anyone?"

"I thought you were my friend," growled Tala accusingly.

Alexis handed him a glass of lemonade "I thought you were my captain."

"I am…are you my friend?"

"I'll think about it…oh all right," she said giving in to his puppy dog eyes.

"Can I call you elf again?"

"No."

"Pixie?"

"No."

"But Bryan calls you kitty!" he pleaded sounding more like a five year old.

"…"

"That's 'coz I', special!" he called from the other room.

"I'm special too!"

"Yeah, coz you've got special needs."

"Talk to the hand coz the face aint listening" he shouted back.

"Tala! No more drinks for you!" yelled Alexis into his face, trying to catch his wondering attention.

Ignore. "Can I call you puss in boots?" he chuckled pointing at her boots."

Blink. Blink. Silent scream. _'You've got to be kidding me.'_

"I'm going back to bed."

* * *

Spencer was propped up like an old man by the fire. His snores shook the room. Tala and Ivan, ignoring his presence pirouetted around the sleeping giant and sang on the top of there voices.

Meanwhile, the remaining three sane people had barricaded themselves in the corner of the room using the sofa, the TV and the coffee table.

Bryan sniggered, "No Puss in boots! Don't leave me!" he whispered imitating Tala's actions earlier, leaving out the whole 'clinging to leg' and 'getting dragged across the floor.'

"Drink?" asked Kai, handing out the bottles. "Crisps? Biscuits? Cake? Sausage rolls…God you guys know how to stock up."

"I'm from the butterfly clan! Look at my beautiful badge!"

They simultaneously peaked over the top of the sofa, in time to see Tala twirl around.

"My bracelet is way cooler!" yelled Ivan as he shook his wrist in Tala's face.

"That's a necklace you twit!" yelled Kai as all three ducked back down behind their barricade.

Alexis glanced from Bryan to Kai, "I'm not even gonna ask where they got them from."

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That was…fun? If you liked it then review!

Anyway, KAI has ARRIVED! Whoopee! (I think). The next bit is a two part. Interesting. It involves a team that have a past with Alexis…when she went around as a guy (within the recent months) and they're not happy when they run in to each other…am I giving the plot away?


	17. Chapter 15

HELLO PEOPLE!!! GUESS WHO'S BACK??? YES it's me, XxXMidNighT.

It's been sooooooo long, but as I wrote on my profile, I was reminded about this story and now I'm literally ITCHING to write this chapter. Sure it's been ages, but I'm sure some people would still like to know what's happening to Alexis, like whether or not anyone's gonna find out she's a girl and if there are any pairings....

AS I HAVEN'T WRITTEN FOR A VERY LONG TIME I'D VERY MUCH APPRECIATE IT IF PEOPLE REVIEWED TO TELL ME IF MY STANDARDS ARE a) SLIPPING, OR b) GETTING BETTER.

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This is for all the people that encouraged me to continue. I'm dedicating this to you and you know who you all are. Thanks. You guys don't know how much it meant to me when you told me to go on.

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Alexis could feel her inner self cower in front of Tala. Never had she felt so threatened by him. His face was impassive and absolutely blank, but she could feel the ice cold anger coming off of him in waves; anger that was directed at her. And he had every right to be angry.

"Tala I..." she stuttered. The words just wouldn't come as she looked into those eyes. Hadn't they been like the summer sky just yesterday? Well now they looked like ice mirrors; hard, cold and relentless. "I'm so-" she broke off. What? Sorry? Was that even the word to use with a furious Tala Ivanov? Not if she didn't want to see the sneer again. He stared down at her, as though seeing her for the first time. They had all looked at her like that once they came back through the door. Even though Tala had saved her arse from a raving Bryan, he was still giving her the cold shoulder. It makes one wonder how mad Bryan had been.

Tala turned away, not waiting for her to even try to finish her sentence. _'Ouch. And I'm not even gonna say I told you so,'_ was the _un_reassuring words of Pantera as he too left her. Alexis licked her bleeding lips, the metallic taste not doing wonders for her upset stomach. Well you'd feel sick if you'd just been Bryan Kuznetsov's punch bag.

**Flashback**

Bryan had smashed his fist into her mouth. She breathed in blood and choked.

"Bryan I swear I DIDN'T MEAN IT." She didn't even try to run away as he grabbed her jacket and flung her against the wall. "BRY-" He kicked her in the stomach, the sole of his boot smashing right into her abdomen. She dry retched as she felt her legs buckle under her.

"Get up!" he spat. Grabbing her by her hair and lifting her to her feet. Alexis cried out, her eyes screwed shut. "I don't believe it was you that ran out on us. What happened to the other Alexis? HUH? OR WAS IT ALL A FUCKING LIE?"

"No. I-"

"Shut it." He smashed his fist into her face again, the blood vessels in her nose bursting. His right hand was tangled in her hair, his left raining down blows on her face and chest as he yelled obscenities at her. Alexis cried out, shrinking in his grip.

"Bryan." It took just one word. No emotions in it, just an order. Bryan let go of her hair, grabbing hold of her jacket with both hands now. He pulled her so close, their noses were nearly touching. "You're a piece of shit that doesn't deserve to be called blitzkrieg. You're a worthless pile of scum that has no decency, no morals. I don't believe I actually started to like you." He threw her onto the stairs with all his might and turned, Ivan and Spencer following ignoring her howl of pain as the edge of the steps collided with her back. Ivan looked at her once, eyes full of hatred and disgust, before he followed Bryan out the front door. Spencer looked at her with pity and probably a little bit of sorrow.

Alexis was left to slump down off the fourth step onto the floor she looked up through her blood soaked bangs at her 'saviour'. She knew that deep down he'd have loved to see Bryan continue pummelling her.

"He's right," was all he said as he sneered at her. "No one leaves their team in a mess and runs off like a coward. Coward, that's what you are."

Alexis breathed in through her bloodied bandana, the smell of her own blood making her queasy.

"Tala." She could say no more.

**End Flashback

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**

Kai leant against the kitchen's work top. The four boys in front of him seemed battered, not as much as the neko-jin that just slunk past the kitchen door. They were facing him, retelling the day's events for the second time, so they couldn't see Alexis as she walked backwards and forwards carrying a pillow, a duvet, a book...things that showed she wasn't going to face sleeping alone with Tala.

'_He does have some common sense after all,' _thought Kai. No one in their right mind would sleep in the same room as Tala when he had _that_ murderous look in his eyes.

"I don't get it. They want a rematch with him...why drag us into it too?" squawked Ivan just before he stiffed his face with bread rolls.

"I guess they see him as blitzkrieg now...so...the blame or whatever kinda spreads. Instead of _just_ battling him, they can battle one of you. Plus they get to say they beat a blitzkrieg-"

"Which they won't!" snapped Tala.

"Hell yeah they won't!" growled Bryan

"So who did they want to battle exactly?" asked Kai, noting that Alexis hovered outside the kitchen door.

"They didn't say who...any one of us, I guess," said Spencer speaking for the first time.

"I say he plays them. It's nothing to do with us."

"Cool it Bryan. Does he look like he can aim Pantera after you beat the fucking shit out of him?"

Bryan didn't meet Tala's gaze. "I was angry."

Kai smirked, _'so you're bitbeast is Pantera. A Panther?'   _"A neko-jin heals faster than a normal person...maybe he could- when is it exactly?"

"Four days from now. Saturday."

Kai looked up and met Alexis's gaze. She nodded once before she slipped into the living room. "Give him Saturday. He can win that and you can forget about this."

"What are you on Kai? He bloody ran out on us-"

"We'll give him Saturday," murmured Tala. Spencer gave Bryan and Ivan a silencing glare. "But he'd better win it..."

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Alexis could hardly believe it. Tala had been working her to the limit. Never in her life had Alexis collapsed. But under Tala's supervision, anything was possible. Even though it surprised him, he was glad he'd finally worked out how to break her. Kai had nodded once as he watched her drag herself to a nearby bench. First Tala had allowed Bryan to fight her until he could do no more. Not waiting for Alexis to catch her breath he'd gotten Ivan and Spencer to attack her with Wyborg and Seaborg. Alexis had barely knocked Wyborg out when Seaborg had completely floored Pantera. Then all over again, this time a fight against Spencer and battles against Ivan and Bryan. All Tala did was note on his clipboard, look at his stop watch and pace around, lips pursed.

"Get up; we're going for a walk."

Alexis flicked back her fringe and looked up into those blue eyes, the colour of the sky on a cold winter's day. She nodded, getting to her feet without even getting an offered hand. Her legs wobbled. _'Not now.'_ Her hand groped thin air as she felt them give out. "A minute," she breathed. "Just one."

Tala sneered and turned away. "Don't bother, I've changed my mind. I'm not going anywhere with you."

Alexis closed her eyes so she didn't have to see him walk away. Oh she'd do anything to have sweet old Tala back the way he'd been. Now she knew why the Blitzkriegs were given their space. No one wanted to mess with _them_. "Oh Lord." She struggled to her feet and walked slowly towards the stairs, anything to get out of this god forsaken gym. Upstairs she saw Ivan pull on a jacket and boots and head for the door, he glanced back once sensing a presence. He turned away once he saw it was her.

Ivan liked the sound of snow crunching under his boots, the cold Russian wind clearing his mind and numbing the throbbing in his arms that came from all the training. He loved Russia and winter, much to Wyborg's displeasure. Snakes didn't like the cold.

'_Let him walk with you Ivan, it won't kill you. He needss the company.'_

'_I don't bloody care. He can go and get Bryan's company, they were perfectly good friends before he bloody ruined it!'_

'_Exactly, you exssspect him to go back to Bryan when Bryan'sss woundss are sstill bleeding?'_

'_You expect __**me**__ to keep him company?!'_

'_I exssspect you to at leasssst pretend he issn't there.'_

Ivan glowered at Alexis as she walked beside him, her back straight and eyes forward as though he wasn't there. Well two could play that game.

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Alexis stood at the edge of the lake, the toes of her boots over the edge. The cold wind blew through her hair, easing the pain in her head. Ivan stood at her side swishing the snow from side to side with his boot. His hand shot out and pushed Alexis in the small of the back, making her tip forward out over the frozen over lake. There may be a layer of ice and snow over it, but the weight of someone was enough to break through it, even if it was spread out evenly.

He grabbed her coat at the last second, just before she reached the point when the centre of gravity was too far out for him to lever her back with the strength of his arms alone. She hung suspended over the ice, unmoving. Not even fidgeting at the sudden closeness of the ice to her face.

"You knew I wouldn't have let you fall?"

"Not really, I wanted to see if you grabbed me...if I'd tried to keep my balance you probably wouldn't have done anything."

Ivan smirked, watching as her eyes continued to gaze at the lake beneath her. "Want to come back?"

"Well, it would do us both some good. This looks too much like an angry pair of Tal-"

Ivan didn't need her to finish, he knew what she was about to say. He pulled her back, until she was standing upright again. His hand never moved from the small of her back

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in," guffawed someone from behind the Ivan. The small blitzkrieg could feel cool metal press into his neck, just below his ear and angled up.

"It's more like the cat got dragged in," purred a slick looking teenager from beside Alexis. His black hair was silky and fell like curtains over his dark shadowed eyes, his red lips curled in an evil smile. The teenager behind Ivan was probably as tall as Spencer, if not taller than him. His broad figure sent a shadow that covered both him and Alexis. Alexis didn't move as something brushed her hair away from her shoulders. "Hey girlyguy," sneered the slick one. "Gonna run off again?"

Alexis didn't even blink, her face always forwards as if she didn't even realise someone was behind her. "Cat's got your tongue?" roared the guy from behind them Ivan, bursting his ear drums.

That was when Ivan pushed, the bullet just missing Alexis's head as she now hung suspended once again over the lake. Ivan swivelled slightly, the bullet aimed for his brain grazing a line across his throat. The stinging heat made him hiss. A quick elbow in the balls earned a howl and a splash as the great oaf toppled into the lake clutching his groin. He yanked Alexis back up and watched as her leg swung gracefully in an arc, knocking the gun out of slick guy's hand. Finally loosening his grip on the leather jacket, Ivan noticed that not once had Alexis taken her hands out of her pockets. He grinned.

Slick guy made a grab for his gun, earning a kick in the face and the gun was kicked up and out over the trees. A thump and a howl rang out through the park. This made Alexis and Ivan stiffen. These guys weren't alone.

"I'll make you pay for this!" screamed slick guy from the floor as he gripped his bleeding nose. His purr had turned all thick and muffled.

"Shut it Vlad."

Ivan leered evilly at this Vlad, scarring him back a few feet. "Get them!"

Alexis gripped Ivan's shoulder, steering him to the left as four others leapt over the fence and through the trees. He stumbled momentarily before he sprinted towards the gate. He'd never be able to jump over that fence. Alexis had thrown Vlad into the lake, where he splashed around with his other team mate, trying to break ice towards the edge of the lake and not freeze to death at the same time. Ivan growled as he saw her sprint past him, her longer legs allowing her to cover more ground. _'Plus he's a neko!'_

That left four. Four guys running...with guns by the sound of it. Something whizzed past his ear. It hit the ground and swerved around, aiming for his legs. Oh and beyblades too.

"Wyborg!" he screamed as said beyblade smashed into the offender's own spinning top. It was sent spinning into a tree, where it was embedded in the bark. Ivan glanced up in time to see three others were now blocking his path. Behind him were guys and guns. In front of him were three evil looking beyblades that were coming right at him.

"LET. IT. RIIIIIIIP!" came the guttural growl from up ahead. A large, heavy beyblades hit the ground, sweeping in a large arc, knocking each beyblade back a few feet where they lay topside down. That made the banging behind them get more frequent. Ivan spun around, Wyborg whizzing backwards and forwards in front of him. He felt a hand grip his right arm and he was swung up and around.

"ALEXIS!"

"Sorry. It's the only way." She grabbed Pantera as he zipped past her, heaving Ivan higher up on her back. "I'll run this time, but not without you."

Ivan grinned, clinging to her back. _'So he's learnt a lesson after all.' _Then the grin fell off his face. "I DON'T WANT A BLOODY PIGGY BACK RI-" his words were cut off as Alexis swerved into an alley, not even stopping at the sight of the eight foot high brick wall. With a leap onto the dustbin pushed into the corner, she leapt cleanly over the wall.

And landed on the hood of a car. Ivan fully expected to feel the shock waves run through her and then him, but it felt like landing on pillows. Another jump and they had cleared the car completely. So there were some plus sides to riding a neko-jin's back. The sound of revving engines and skidding tyres brought him back to his sense. Alexis had just turned out of a back street when a large four by four hurtled past. Ivan saw the driver's surprised expression as Alexis leapt right over the top of the front of his vehicle. This was one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Ivan clung on. A motorbike roared past and spun around, only to have Wyborg zip through the rubber tyre and back into his hands.

"Thanks," panted Alexis.

"Couldn't let you have all the fun."

The four by four was back and a well aimed knife ripped right through the hood and buried itself somewhere. It stopped.

They were now only a few streets away and two bikes were gaining them. Alexis glanced over her shoulder. "Shit!" She was panicking. Ivan could feel it in the way she leant forward, they were running flat out. He half expected her to go down on all fours completely. "Sorry for carrying you. I know you don't like it..."

"What is this? Last words?"

"Heh- something like that." She stopped. One behind and one in front. Ivan racked his mind as he scanned their surroundings. That left right and left. Alexis feigned for right and jumped left. She was running along a garden wall, just like a cat, and Ivan had his eyes screwed shut. There were some parts of a rollercoaster where you couldn't look down.

"Shit," screamed Alexis as they hit the ground. This time Ivan felt it, like a boulder smashing up into him. Alexis's legs gave out.

"It's just up the road," snapped Ivan as he stumbled off her back. She looked him in the eyes and he could see it. Pain.

"I think I busted my ankle," she whispered. He could barely hear her through that damned bandana and over the sound of the engines that were getting oh so closer.

"Move it!" he roared, shoving her in front of him. She stumbled, trying to keep up with him as they got closer to Skreknell. He bounded up the steps, jamming his key into the lock as whoops and howls of glee filled the air. He turned to see Alexis crouching on the ground and two motorbikes roaring towards her. She was hunched over her leg. He flung the door inwards, but hung back as he watched in horror as they came up behind her.

At the last moment he saw Alexis leap up and flip over them, her uninjured leg pushing her up. She landed on that same leg and half hobbled half ran towards the door before they could turn back and get her. She toppled in before him and he slammed the door shut. "CALL THE POLICE!" he screamed as Tala, Bryan and Spencer leapt out of the living room. Kai was already supporting Alexis as she made her way towards them.

"No. Don't. We shouldn't be seeing them until Saturday. We got back to our turf. They have noth-"

"Bullshit." Bryan grabbed Alexis and bundled her into a chair. "You don't move from here, got it?" he said as he left the room with Spencer. Tala slowly took of her gloves and pulled off her right boot and sock. He paused, lightly caressing the red swelling. "Go get the first aid kit Kai."

Kai helped Tala bandage her foot, going back to get an ice pack. "We got a message while you were out. Kai came straight over."

"What was it?" asked Ivan and Alexis

"The one who wins goes through to the tournament...the other one has to stay home."

"So? I' can beat them with my hands tied behind my back," snapped Alexis.

"And you'll launch Pantera like that?"

"—"

"Exactly. We're counting on you."

A few moments later Bryan stormed in. "HE'S A BASTARD!"

"We just got off the phone from Balkov. We have to play them... and he's going by their rules. The one who wins..." growled Spencer.

"And you're worried because? Show some guts you two. We can wipe the floor with them without even looking at them," said Tala smoothly as he pulled off Alexis's other boot. "Are you worried Alexis?"

Alexis met his sharp blue eyes. They were softer now, blue petals rather than blue ice. She could feel the encouragement wash over her. The things she'd heard about Tala, him being vicious, merciless, hard and cold, were true, but that feeling she'd got at the beginning of their acquaintance, that no matter what he valued friendship and hard work, was even truer.

"I think you could do it in your sleep."

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. What do you say I play them?" she added turning away from her captain and meeting the eyes of her other team mates, one by one. They all nodded, Spencer smiled. She finally looked at Kai. 'It's better that you said it before they told you too,' his eyes seemed to say. There was another wall she could fall back on she noted mentally.

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Next chapter: Blitzkreig Boys vs The Stripes

Btw anyone that wants to know what Alexis looks like, I have a deviantart account. Google themidnightlady19 and click on the first thing that comes up, that's my account. Alexis is in scraps, as are many other things. There are two pics?... I think. I'll go check. If any of you have deviantart, comment on the pics. I'd like to know if they're better than the story. Lol.


	18. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Um yeah *laughs nervously* so this has been up on fanfiction for how long…two years? And I still haven't finished it. I was going through it last night and I thought to myself…dude this is NOT GOOD. I mean the style at the beginning and the plot seemed to drag on and I thought 'no wonder nobody likes it!' and then I read the chapter I've been working on and I thought 'if only the beginning was in the same style like this or that it was as long and interesting and fast paced as this.' So I decided, and it's final, that I'm going to rewrite this from scratch as soon as my exams are over. I'm gonna sit my butt down at this here laptop and let my creative juices flow XD yeah. So I will leave this up until I've got a decent amount of the rewritten story up and if I get a good response to it too (hint-hint) and I hope you'll like it.

I think it would be worth reading that one…it'll be much better. I promise XD


	19. Chapter 19

1st chapter of the rewrite is up!!


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